Devil Wears Armani
by Mindige0
Summary: <html><head></head>Clark has the one job that most people would kill to have, unfortunately Clark is the one person that doesn't want the job. Will he be able to survive or quit?</html>
1. Met Translation Dept or is it Hell?

"You have a job interview, where?!" A woman with long brown hair and brown doe eyes said to a dark haired young man about the same age.

"_Julian_" the man said before shrugging his shoulders, he didn't really care on *where* he had a job interview just that he *had* one. He hadn't known how hard it would be to get interviews for his chosen field of work, translation; as in translating from one language to another, when he had taken up the major in college.

"_JULIAN_!" the woman squealed before she began to talk a mile a minute.

"How did you manage it? Do you know that like a million other people probably want that job? Oh. My. God!" The man could only stare at the woman and hope that she wouldn't notice if he tried to slip out of having lunch with her now. At the time he had been excited about the prospect of a better job, it wasn't like his job at the hospital was taking him anywhere. He had thought that it would be a challenge working at the hospital, translating for the doctors to the patients and vice versa but he had been dead wrong. Most of the time he was pushed over to the financial assistance area, and wasn't that a joke because there was no assistance to be had most of the time; and he also had to fight with his co-workers due to the patient feeling that their bill was incorrect or that they weren't going to pay at all for some reason or another. He absolutely hated his job, it paid the bills sure but that was about it. He had never really been a people person, preferring instead paper and ink but he had to find something to pay for the apartment that he lived in and the student loans that he had at graduating from college.

"Oh. My. God!" The woman squealed again before rambling on again about how this was such a great opportunity for him and that he had best not screw it up, since she was looking for any sort of hand-offs the company was willing to give to him from their closet. He wasn't really sure on what she meant by that, but he nodded his head and smiled, just as his mother taught him to do when dealing with particularly difficult people.

"Clark just don't screw this up" the woman said before she started to ramble on about her latest woe, which seemed to be that the current designer she worked for, the fifth one in a string of jobs she had, was making her work entirely way to hard. As if she was some sort of personal assistant, she didn't *do* getting coffee or dry cleaning. That just wasn't what she was there for; she was there to show them that she was just as good if not better in some cases then the current hot designers of the industry. Clark only nodded his head not agreeing or disagreeing with what the woman was saying, he had learned the hard way that doing so usually ended him in the dog house with the rest of the small group of their friends.

"Well I better get back" Clark said checking his watch and seeing that if he didn't leave now that he would be late clocking back into work. He hadn't wanted to have lunch with the woman but it seemed that he could never say no to her, even now after they had grown up and moved away from Smallville.

"Okay" the woman said clearly distracted by her cell phone ringing and not at the fact that he was leaving.

"Yeah, whatever" he said before making his way back to the large hospital that hung in the background of the small sandwich shop that he had stopped to get a bite to eat at with the woman that was now on her phone looking most unhappy about something.

"Kent!" Met his ears as he made his way to his cube after clocking back in from lunch, something he so didn't want to do.

"Dani" the man said in greeting, the woman could be a real bitch when she didn't get her way. He was still amazed that she worked at the hospital with as much fuss as she usually kicked up in their department.

"A doctor needs a translator" she said her nose in the air, as if she was better than he was.

"Sure where?" He asked happy to be not having to sit at his desk and listen to the woman whine about how she just didn't have *time* for the sorts of things that they were making her do.

"8, West" she said before he nodded his head and then made his way back out of the door that hid their department away from most of the hospital.

"8, West" he said to himself as he made his way over to the huge bank of elevators on the west side of the hospital. Once he arrived he asked one of the workers on the floor, a decidedly unpleasant experience, where the doctor that had been requesting a translator was.

"Over there" the African American woman with glasses and blue streaks running through her hair said, while pointing to a doctor and a group of people around her. He said a quick thanks, got a roll of the eyes from the worker and then made his way over to where the doctor was standing looking a bit lost.

"Resident then" he said to himself before making it the rest of the way to where the doctor stood.

"You requested a translator" he said looking at the doctor and noticing that she was quite pleasant on the eyes, but definitely didn't look to have any control over the situation at hand.

"Yes" she said with a relieved sigh before her eyes widened at the figure that had spoken.

"Clark" he said sticking out his hand before he looked to the group surrounding the doctor, wondering what he was in for this time.

"I hope you speak Italian" she said before her eyes widened even more when Clark nodded his head. He was quite proud of the fact that he was fluent in five languages and was working hard on learning even more.

"_Ciao, mi chiamo Clark e tradurrò per lei oggi."_ Clark said before looking to the doctor to explain what was going on with the family that was surrounding her.

"Uh" she said at a loss, when Clark had spoken all thought had left her brain. A hottie such as him speaking the language of romance had made her get all gooey, making her forget the reason on why she needed Clark in the first place.

"_Ciao, mi chiamo Irina e questo è la mia famiglia. Siamo venuti vedere che nostro Nonno ma questo dottore dice che deve parlare a noi del suo. ...condition?_" A woman that had a couple patches of graying hair said to Clark looking at him hoping that he would be able to shed some light on what was going on. Clark nodded his head and then relayed what Irina, the woman that had spoken, had said to the doctor.

"Correct, it seems that Mr. Giana suffered from a mild heart attack" the doctor told Clark, who then relayed it to the Irina and the group of people that were with her. Once everyone was on the same page, Clark explained to the doctor that the family wanted to visit with Mr. Giana, to which the doctor replied that they could visit but one or two at a time. It was about thirty minutes later that Clark arrived back to his cube only to be stopped by yet another one of his co-workers. It seemed to Clark that none of them actually did any work; they just sort of hung out in the office and sent him off to do their work when they couldn't break themselves away from the drama filled story from another co-worker.

"And then the girl stole the baby stroller and was walking down the street without a care in the world….." Clark heard before the other co-worker that was buddy, buddy with Dani came over to his cube.

"Back?" She asked as if she couldn't see him sitting in his chair checking his e-mails to see if there were any other pressing matters that needed his attention.

"Yeah" Clark responded back, he had learned the hard way that not responding wasn't a good idea, no it was best to smile and nod your head and answer any and all questions that any one asked of you.

"Dani's looking for you" the woman said before strolling off to go and listen to the drama about the stolen baby stroller, that had evolved to the other girl slashing the tires of the one girl's car; and they were girls since Clark knew that their ages ranged from 18 to at the maximum 23 years old. Once the woman had left did Clark lock his computer back up and make his way over to Dani's office, the only office in the whole room that they were located in. Clark knocked on the door before receiving a 'come in' and then opening the door.

"You wanted to see me" Clark said once he had sat in a chair in the office. He so hated coming in here, it always put him on edge, unlike the rest of the office since they seemed to hang out in said office.

"Yes, I got your request for your day off and I was wondering what the reason for the day is" the woman said her eyes hard as she watched Clark, looking for any sort of signs as to why he needed a whole day off in the coming days.

"Personal matter" Clark said, he didn't think he had to answer the question out right but he knew better than to not answer at all.

"Hmmm" Dani said before looking down to the paper and then looking at her computer screen. Clark of course had plenty of paid time off or better known to the hospital as PTO, but she was a bit hesitant for some reason to give Clark this time.

"You can go" Dani said before looking at Clark and trying to gage his reaction to her words, she was a bit on edge with the idea that Clark may be looking for a new job. He was the only one in the department that she could depend on to actually do their jobs all the time. She of course allowed the rest of the office the luxury to sort of not work since Clark was there to pick up the slack but if he was looking elsewhere, she and the department would be in a world of trouble. Clark stood up and then left the office making his way back to his cube to hear that now the baby stroller stealing girl had retaliated from the slashed tires by breaking in the windows of the tire slashing girl's car.

"You have to be kidding me" Clark mumbled, this was why he hated, no he *loathed* his job. He hoped that this job interview went well, that way he could get away from the drama that always seemed to fill the office during work hours. For the rest of the day Clark was sent around the hospital doing translations as needed and then returning back to his cube to then listen to the latest drama from another one of his co-workers.

"Clark" the woman from earlier called out to Clark as he sat at his cube and watched the clock countdown to quitting time.

"Yeah" Clark said looking up into the woman's face and then shuttering, she was a sight to be seen; with her too much makeup and her nicotine stained teeth.

"Dani wants to see you again" she said before strolling off to her cube to check the latest gossip on the internet. Clark made his way back to the office that held Dani yet again and then knocked and receiving the response to 'come in' yet again.

"You wanted to see me" Clark stated again before Dani was handing over the paper she had been working with since Clark had arrived the first time.

"I've approved your PTO request even though it was last minute" Dani said shoving the paper in Clark's hand, they would be in for a hard day tomorrow since it seemed that most people decided that Friday was a good day to go to the hospital only to then be admitted.

"Thanks" Clark said looking at the paper and then looking at Dani and the unhappy look she had on her face.

"We'll be a bit tight tomorrow but we will manage" she said as if they there wasn't seven other people in the office that could translate.

"Sorry about that" Clark said before taking the paper and backing out of the room slowly, he was certainly *not* going to cancel his job interview over being here at the office with a complete group of drama queens.

"Just make sure to get me a copy of that" she said before shooing Clark out of the office. Clark did as he was told and made copies of the signed request and placed a copy in Dani's box along with the Administrative Assistance box as well. Clark could never be too sure on whether or even if Dani would notify the admin of the PTO. Once he was done he checked the time and saw that it was time for him to leave, so with that thought in mind he shut down his computer, turned off his desk light and made his way to the time clock to clock out. Once he was done with that he walked to his car in the parking garage behind the building that the office was in and then made his way home once in the car. Clark dragged himself into his apartment and saw that he had a big two messages on his phone, pressing play on the phone's answering machine he listened to the two message while sitting on the couch.

"Hey Clark" a bubbly voice said over the line making Clark want to groan. Kara Kent, his cousin was not who he wanted to hear from at the moment; the blonde woman was almost as bad if not worse as Lana Lang and Lois Lane, put together and that was saying something since Lois Lane was known for her ruthlessness when dealing with the social elite of Metropolis. Clark shuddered to think what the woman would have been like if she had gotten into investigative reporting and not the celebrity entertainment gossip biz that she was in now.

"Lana told me about the interview….wow is all I can say. _Julian_ Magazine….. Lois was right pissed when she heard about that, and she said to tell you that she wants a full detail account of your visit to _Julian_" Kara said before she began to ramble on about something at work before inviting him out for a night on the town after his interview.

"You will of course call when you get finished" Kara said before wishing him luck and then saying goodbye. Clark let out a relieved sigh before he heard the other voice on his voice mail.

"Clark" a husky voice said on the voice mail, this was so not what he wanted to listen to when coming back from a long day at work.

"I'll be back in Metropolis tomorrow, the photo shoot is finally over and I thought that we could do dinner" the male voice said acting as if it was just a casual dinner between friends and not a dinner between lovers.

"Whatever Laurent" Clark said before deleting the message and wondering why he even bothered with continuing the farce of a relationship he was in with Laurent. With an eye roll Clark made his way into the kitchen to see what there was to eat in the apartment, in the refrigerator it seemed that there was nothing viable for him to eat; so with a sigh Clark pulled out his handy dandy order menu box and looked to see if he could find something that he was in the mood for. It seemed that pizza called to him, so he ordered a large pizza with double cheese and pepperoni, before also ordering a 2-liter of soda to accompany it. He would have just gotten both the pizza and the soda on his own but he needed to pick out what he was going to wear to his job interview and he had a feeling it was going to be much harder than picking out clothes to go to work would be.

"White or blue" Clark said to himself standing in front of the small closet that was in his bedroom, the closet was tiny but since Clark didn't have a ton of clothing it didn't really matter much. It was as Clark pulled out both the white shirt and blue shirt in question that his food arrived.

"Fifteen, thirty-six" the pizza man said holding onto the pizza box with the 2-liter of soda at his feet. Clark dashed to the small table near the entrance and grabbed a twenty from his wallet before handing it over to the driver and receiving change back. Clark took the two items and then pressed a few bucks into the drivers hand before closing the door. Clark quickly set to work eating dinner, and once finished he placed the rest of the pizza into the refrigerator along with the soda. Clark had just been heading back to his bedroom and tiny closet when the phone rang.

"Hello" Clark said wondering who was calling.

"Clark, so glad I caught you" a male voice said, the same male voice that had been on the voice mail.

"Laurent" Clark said before listening to the background noise of where Laurent was. Clark could tell that where ever he was, he was having a good time for there was music blaring and Clark could hear people shouting Laurent's name; as if trying to get his attention.

"So did you get my message?" Laurent asked, he knew that Clark sometimes tended to avoid checking his messages on his voice mail so he usually had to prompt him to make sure that Clark did in fact check his voice mail.

"Yeah" Clark said before he heard some more shouting.

"Where are you? Why's it so loud?" Clark questioned, he was having a hard time understanding Laurent over the loud music and people on the other end of the phone.

"The after party for the Prada fashion show" Laurent said with Clark barely understanding what he was saying.

"Oh" Clark said totally at a loss as to how to even continue to carry a conversation with Laurent, since it seemed that he was unwilling to move to a quieter location to speak with him.

"Hang on" Laurent said before Clark heard a rustle and then the volume of the background noise lessened by at least half if not more.

"Sorry about that" Laurent said before he quickly explained that he was currently at the Prada after party, when he thought he would give Clark a buzz and see if he would be agreeable to having dinner when he returned.

"So dinner"

"Yeah" Clark said a bit uncertain on why Laurent was pushing this so much.

"We need to talk" Laurent said by way of explanation, it was then that Clark's mind figured out that Laurent wanted to break things off with him and that he wanted to do so in person.

"Sure, why not" Clark said already trying hard to fight the pain that he could feel in his chest over the thought of Laurent breaking things off with him. He had been with Laurent for almost two years now, but it seemed that now that Laurent's face had been found that he wanted bigger and better things and he wanted them without Clark, the dorky translator boyfriend.

"Well the plane should land at about 3:30, so why don't we have dinner at 6 and we can talk" Laurent suggested before Clark agreed knowing that it was the only thing he could do.

"Bye" Laurent said before Clark heard the volume in the background noise increase before Laurent hung up. Clark held the phone for a beat or two before hanging it up and then taking in his small but clean apartment and noticing little things around the place that were Laurent's. There was no need for him to even keep them here if Laurent planned to break things off, and he was certain that was what Laurent was going to do.

"Better pack it up" Clark said forgetting for the moment the job interview he had tomorrow with _Julian_ and the promise of better things. Clark was able to pack up all of Laurent's trinkets into one lone cardboard box before setting it by the door. Once Laurent broke things off he would be able to hand over the box without Laurent having to come into the apartment, which Clark thought was a good idea. He didn't want any sort goodbye fuck that was for sure. He may be desperate and lonely but he wasn't that desperate or lonely.

"Crap" Clark said once he had taken a seat on the loveseat that was in the living room, he had forgotten in all his packing up of Laurent's things about the interview and the fact that he had nothing picked out for said interview.

"White or blue" Clark said once he made his way back to his bedroom and closet.

"White" Clark he pulling out the white shirt and deciding that it didn't look that bad, it had some wrinkles but they were nothing that wouldn't fall out over night or at least he hoped so. He thought about calling with Lana, Kara or truly in a pinch Lois but stopped since he knew that they would probably deem, although they already did deem, his clothing not worthy of the interview and would send him on a shopping trip with money he didn't have.

"Tie or no tie" Clark questioned before pulling out the five ties that he owned and figuring that no tie would look better since the selection he had to chose from was slim to none of the current fashions.

"Pants" Clark said looking over the jeans, khakis and two pairs of dress slacks that he had in his tiny closet. He had his choice of either gray or black slacks. Clark was leaning towards the black but he remembered the last time he wore then and he had known that they were dirty, well at least a pair of pants that probably shouldn't be worn to a job interview, he did after all have some sense.

"It's going to have to do" Clark said with a sigh and then placing the whole outfit on the doorway to the bathroom so that he wouldn't have to worry about where it was in the morning. For the rest of the night Clark watched TV and looked over the job description of the job he was interviewing for on the internet, before turning in to bed and hoping that this would be his big break to get away from the hospital.


	2. The Interview and the Meeting

hospital.

"GOOD MORNING METROPOLIS…THIS IS KID KELLY…." Woke Clark up as his alarm went off to the jockey on the radio shouting at Clark.

"I'm up, I'm up" Clark mumbled before slapping the alarm clock and then peeking to see what time it was.

"Well crap" Clark said thinking that it was entirely way too early to be getting up, as he thought every other day that he got up at this time.

"Big day" Clark said, talking to himself it wasn't as if he could call one of his friends for a pep-talk since they would no doubt want to come over and inspect his outfit which would lead to a diatribe on why he didn't wear better clothes, he was after all going out with a model and couldn't he help Clark in his fashion black hole. That would of course lead to him telling them that he was pretty sure that his model boyfriend was going to break up with him, so there would be no help from that end. Which would then lead to his friends asking what *he* had done to have the pair break up, like it was his fault that Laurent no longer wanted to be with him. Clark showered and got ready for the day ahead, making sure to even floss his teeth before getting dress in his interview outfit he had chosen. By the time that Clark had dithered, he had exactly one hour before his job interview. So Clark got his portfolio ready and then made his way to his parked car with the instructions he had been given in his hand and thoughts running through his head about some of the questions that the person may ask when he arrived. The ride to the _Julian_ Building was short, it was the finding a parking spot that seemed to take up the rest of his time before his interview.

"Finally" Clark said stalking a person as they made their way to their cars. Clark had been looking for a full twenty minutes for a spot and then he has spotted a worker making their way to their car. He had been lucky since there was a huge line of cars trying to fight for the limited parking spots in the underground garage; Clark hated to think on how early he would need to be here to even get a parking spot. Clark pulled into the spot quickly and then got out of the car, making sure to lock it before heading for the tall glass and steel building. He hadn't really known what he was getting into when the HR person had called about the job, he had just known that it was a job interview in his chosen field of study and that anything could be better than the hell hole he called a job currently. Clark people watched for a moment and noticed that most, if not all of the people that came to or from the building looked like they could be someone famous and were just at the ready to pose for the camera. The women all wore suits or something close to it with three inch stilettos, their hair done to perfection along with their make-up. If there was a woman with glasses, they were of designer quality and they looked to be worth more than Clark's whole wardrobe. The men on the other hand all looked like they were CEOs, CFOs and some other C that Clark couldn't think up at the moment. They looked much too young be running anything and they held an air around that that screamed 'I'm important, look at me'. This had Clark shifting foot-to-foot, a nervous habit of his that Kara and his mother had been trying to break of him. It hadn't worked yet and he didn't think that it would ever go away, he thought ruefully. Clark took a fortifying breath before he entered the building and became even more self-conscious of what he was wearing for the inside was just as bad as the outside of the building. There were more people milling about looking absolutely perfect, something that Clark was realizing that he was definitely not. 'Screw up that would mean I actually made it to the interview' Clark thought, remembering Lana's words about him not screwing up this chance.

"Do you need some help?" A woman with mid-length blonde hair said to Clark clearly wondering what on Earth he was doing here in this building.

"Uh, no" Clark said before looking at his paper and seeing that he would need to make his way to the tenth floor for his interview in HR.

"You sure, visitors aren't allowed in the building" Clark could tell what she clearly thought of him and his attire, she every few seconds she would look over his body and then hold in a grimace.

"Oh, I have a job interview" Clark said before making his way over to the elevators. He never noticed that as soon as he walked away the woman and everyone in the large entry area of the building gasped as a bald man walked into the building. Clark had pushed the up button, deep in thought wondering if he should even bother with the interview to begin with. It seemed like most if not all of the people that worked here were perfect, something he was clearly lacking if the look on the woman's face meant anything. The bing of the elevator had Clark moving towards the one with the highlighted up arrow, and it was as he was about to step onto the elevator that someone pushed him out of the way and then pushed the close button.

"Hey!" Clark shouted bringing all of the attention of the area to him and the person the elevator now.

"This is full"

"Hey! No it isn't" Clark said sticking his arm into the closing door hoping that he wouldn't end up on the nightly news about the elevator taking off his arm off, as he had seen on the news on occasion when poor maintenance had been a factor.

"Yes it is" the bald man said before pressing the close button again making Clark pull his arm out at the last second, not wanting to lose said limb. By now it seemed as if the whole area was watching Clark and the elevator's doors as the closed. Clark blushed when he noticed that everyone then began to speak to each other as if not believing what Clark had just done. Clark trying not to look or even over hear what they were saying, so instead he pressed the up button yet again and then waited for the next elevator to come. A Bing sounded shortly after Clark had pressed the up button and he then made his way onto the elevator before noticing that one other person had gotten on with him.

"What floor" Clark asked being polite, he was hoping that not everyone at the office building was as rude as the bald man.

"Fifteenth" the woman said before eyeing Clark and then grimacing. Who was this po-duck boy in the _Julian_ Magazine Building? Clark pressed the button before choosing his floor as well; Clark looked at himself in the mirror walls of the elevator and began to wonder on why he was even bothering with going through with this.

"Job interview" the other person on the elevator said before getting a nod in response to the questions.

"Hmmm" the person said before the elevator stopped and Clark made his way onto the floor looking a bit lost. The whole floor was done in purple, he wasn't really sure what that meant but he had a feeling it wasn't anything good.

"Can I help you" a woman with a perfect hair cut, perfect make-up and perfect outfit said to Clark eyeing him and his outfit. Clark didn't think he looked that bad, his clothes were clean and he most certainly didn't smell so why was it that everyone seemed to give him some sort of once over and deemed him not worthy? They didn't know him and they certainly couldn't judge him by their standards since it was obvious that it was lacking in some areas.

"I have an interview" Clark said before looking down at his piece of paper and finding the name of the person he would be meeting with.

"With whom" the woman asked still not believing that he was here for an interview.

"A, uh…Chloe Sullivan" Clark said reading the name off the paper he had in his hands.

"Ah" the woman said her displeasure very clear to Clark and pretty much anyone who was around. The woman then picked up the phone and called; who Clark assumed was Chloe Sullivan to let her know that her interviewee was there for her. It was while waiting that a short woman with a pixie hair cut came scuttling over to the front desk woman and started whispering in her ear while directing her eyes to Clark every few seconds.

"No he did not!?" The woman said scandalized by the words that the other woman had just told her, she got a nod in response to confirm her words and then she scuttled back away from where she came.

"Clark Kent" a blonde with a flippy hair cut said coming come through the doors that Clark had walked through a few minutes before hand.

"That's me" Clark said before standing up since he had taken a seat on one of the uncomfortable stools that lined the walls.

"Hello, Chloe Sullivan" the woman said before sticking out her hand and then shaking Clark's hand. Clark smiled a bit, this woman hadn't yet done the normal once over and found him lacking something for which he was grateful.

"Follow me" Chloe said before marching right back out of the HR entry and then pressing the down elevator button so that they could go to where the translation department was held in the building.

"Going down" Chloe said before she pressed the B, which was below the P for parking and the LL for lower level on the list of floors and then watched as the doors closed before speaking again.

"So did you find the place okay?"

"Yeah, parking was hard to find though" Clark commented before they were making their way off the elevator, since the elevators were top of the line and zoomed up and down faster than most regular elevators.

"Welcome to the translation department" Chloe said before spreading her arms wide and then grinning to Clark. It wasn't much but it was all hers and she was proud as peaches about it. Clark looked around the floor and had to admit that there was a different vibe going on down here than in the rest of the building. Most of the people that worked there seemed to still have the perfect thing going on, but they were much less up front with it. They just sort of wore the clothing to make sure that they continued to have a job, not that it was their job to look the way they did.

"Follow me" Chloe said before making her way into her office for the interview. She had heard from the rumor mill that ran _Julian_ that Clark had a run in with Lex and was still standing an amazing thing in her book.

"So let's get down to business" Chloe said pulling out the file with Clark's information in it, she had been looking for months now for a translator that could translate the magazine into Arabic since Lex had deemed the country of Qatar worthy of having their publication, and with that meant that they needed to find someone that could translate the magazine into written Arabic. Something that was very hard to find, sure there were those that could speak it fluently but she didn't need a person to speak it she needed a person to write it and Clark had stated that it was one of the many languages that he spoke and wrote fluently. She was only just confirming this before she hired him on; she knew he fit the bill of the stereotype that worked at _Julian _even if he did maybe need a bit of help in the fashion area.

"So it says that you speak and write Arabic fluently"

"Yes, I spent two summers and one semester in Morocco" Clark stated before looking at Chloe wondering if she would be testing him on if he really knew the language or not.

"Good, good" Chloe said excited to actually have a candidate that had spent time in a different country to learn the language. Most of the people she had interviewed had basic book knowledge nothing that was useable in the real world since most of the people who spoke and wrote a language did not do so in the formal way as was taught at schools.

"Can you maybe do a sample for me" Chloe asked, she had a small part of the magazine that she had been having each candidate translate, while she had a translated copy from a service to try and match up the two, seeing who was bluffing and who actually knew what they were doing.

"Sure, no problem" Clark said before Chloe handed over a pen, paper and the small part of an article to Clark. Clark read over the clipping and then set to work translating it; he found the article or what he could gather from the clipping he had to be fairly easy to translate.

"Here you go" Clark said passing the translation to Chloe ten minutes later, it was hard work writing out Arabic than it was saying it. Part of the reason why Clark liked to deal with paper and ink so much, he loved a challenge and writing out a language always presented their own sort of challenges. Chloe looked over the translation and was amazed; Clark had been the first and only person to translate the whole clipping she had given to him. There had been one or two others that has only translated part of it but it seemed she had found herself the next _Julian_ translator and that was Clark Kent; a man that was hot enough to be *inside* the magazine instead of translating it. Chloe tried but failed to not gape at Clark like a fish, Clark blushed at the look before sinking lower in the chair he was sitting in.

"Excellent" Chloe said once she snapped out of the stupor she had been in, maybe she would be able to sneak past Lex's policy on meeting all new employees for she was certain that once Lex met Clark that she would have to start her search all over again. Lex didn't take too kindly to being backed talked to, his latest junior assistant found that out and come to think of it, weren't they still looking for a replacement? Chloe shook her head of the thoughts before standing up a wide grin on her face; oh she just couldn't wait to get Clark down here with the rest of the language nerds.

"Come with me" Chloe said walking them out of her office and then showing Clark around the space that was deemed the Translation Department.

"Is there a reason why you are down here?" Clark hazard before Chloe began laughing; she could already tell that Clark would fit in just fine down here.

"We're not part of the pretties so they stick us in a place where they don't see us" Chloe explained, it would take a while for Clark to understand what she meant but she figured he would figure it out before he did some major damage to one of the pretties that could leave her possibly without a Arabic translator.

"Right" Clark said tucking the information away and figuring he would worry about it later when he had been hired, if he had been hired at all; when they arrived back to the HR floor it seemed that most had sort of gathered around the front desk to listen to the woman standing there talking about something. All fell silent when Chloe walked in with Clark besides her, the room then exploded with whispers about Clark and how he had done something to someone, Clark couldn't quite understand or hear what they were saying.

"I need to speak to Alicia" Chloe said to the woman standing at the front desk, she got a nod of the head and then she was soon being lead back to Alicia's office. Clark sort of stood not really sure what to do and it seemed that those that didn't leave watched him with amazement in their eyes. He was still in the building and he had a bit of an altercation with Lex Luthor, *the man* at _Julian_.

"Clark" Chloe said a smile on her face before she was shaking Clark's hand and telling him that they would be in touch soon. Clark smiled and then made his way back down to the main entrance of the building and then back out to his car. Once in his car he was finally able to breathe, he didn't want to jinx himself but he was pretty sure that he had done really well on the interview. Granted it didn't go like most interviews where the person asked you inane questions for a while before getting to the heart of why you were there but he didn't think that Chloe Sullivan was that type of person. She wanted as little fuss as possible, and that was just fine with Clark. That would cut down on the gossip mill in the department unlike his own, which seemed to have its fill of drama and gossip. Clark arrived home twenty minutes later to see that there was yet again two messages for him.


	3. Super Models and an Offer of a Life Time

"Clark, honey how did the interview go?" His mother's voice said through the speakers of the phone.

"Call me as soon as you get in" she continued on before saying her goodbye and then hanging up the phone. The next message began shortly after the first and it was Laurent.

"Clark call me as soon as you get this" the man said before hanging up the phone without even a goodbye.

"Sure whatever" Clark said looking at the clock and wondering how Laurent had called since he should have been on a plane back to Metropolis. Clark decided to deal with Laurent first since he knew that the conversation would only last a few minutes, unlike with his mother; who could go on for hours before letting him go. Clark dialed the cell phone number for Laurent and got the man after the second ring.

"Hello" Laurent's voice said through the phone, Clark could tell that wherever he was it was much quieter than the night before.

"Hey Laurent" Clark said in answer to Laurent's greeting, knowing that the other man would know who it was.

"Clark" Laurent said his voice taking on a happy tone, which shocked Clark since he was certain that the model was going to break things off with him tonight.

"I just wanted to get things straight for tonight" the other man said in what Clark thought was an almost excited tone.

"Okay" Clark said very confused on what was going on, as he was most of the time when dealing with Laurent.

"How about you meet me at Aureole at 5:30?" Laurent said before getting an answer from Clark. "Sure" Clark said stunned, Laurent rarely wanted to go to a 'hot spot' like Aureole with him. He was usually an embarrassment to his lover since he tended to be a bit on the klutzy side and always managed to cause trouble when they were out. "Wear something nice" Laurent said before ending the connection with the promise of seeing Clark at the restaurant. "Right" Clark said still amazed at Laurent's behavior. "Mom next" Clark said before dialing the number to the farm and then waiting as the phone connected, listening to the phone ring. "Kent Farms, Martha speaking" Martha said into the phone making Clark smile. Nothing ever changed with his parents and it was always something that soothed his nerves when the big city of Metropolis became too much. "Hey mom" Clark said in greeting before his mother was squealing at hearing from her son. "So how did it go?" "I think it went well, I had a bit of a run in with some guy that worked there but besides that I think it went well" "Was the person interviewing you nice?" "Yeah, her name was Chloe Sullivan and she was just as nice as can be" Clark said before relaying his story about how he had been tested by translating something into Arabic, the language that they had been looking for a translator for. "Well it does sound like you had a good interview" Martha said agreeing with her son, she had this feeling that the quote run in was more than just a random run in with a person but she didn't tell her son that. He could be a bit clueless about the world around him sometimes. "Well I think I think I am going to pick up a bit before getting ready for dinner with Laurent" Clark said before blushing. Even now at the age of twenty-five he stilled blushed whenever he spoke to his parents about his choice of partner; his father had been livid when he found out his son batted for the other team but when he saw how happy Clark was with his lifestyle, he had held his tongue and allowed Clark to live his life. "He's back" Martha said remembering when the other man had left to Italy for the fashion show he had been in.

"Yeah, should be arriving here in Metropolis in the next few hours I think" Clark said looking at the clock and seeing that it was well past noon. 'Where had the day gone?' Clark thought before talking to his mother a bit more and then ending the conversation with the promise to call her the moment he knew something. Once off the phone Clark made his way to his bedroom to find something that he would be able to wear at Aureole, he had seen on one of those shows on the Food Channel how upscale the restaurant was. It was the sort of place that CEOs took their wives when they wanted to have a private dinner, it was also the sort of place that most men took their significant others to ask them to marry them. Clark had been quite happy when that law had been passed by Congress and the Senate, since it abolished many of the laws that were in all the states about relations between two men or even two women. There had been an increase in marriages around the country and Clark was glad to see that most of them were of same sex couples, it showed him that true love really was out there. Clark shook his head of the thoughts about marriage, since he knew that Laurent wasn't even known to be one of 'those' type of men. It took Clark a lot longer than he thought it would to pick out an outfit that wouldn't have him being sent away from the restaurant immediately, he settled on a gray suit he had and a black button up shirt with no tie for he didn't have one and he certainly wasn't going to go out and buy one. Laurent had picked out this particular suit when he had forced Clark to go to one of the fashion shows that he had been in, in Metropolis. He had been decidedly uncomfortable at that show and had sworn never to go to another again if he could help it. It hadn't helped his cause that he had managed to drench some famous muckity-mucks wife in his drink, but Clark had apologized and then scuttled away as quickly as he could. Laurent had been livid when he came looking for him, but the make-up sex had been explosive which made Clark grin at the memory as he dressed and got ready to meet Laurent at the restaurant. By the time that Clark arrived to the restaurant he had barely two minutes to spare before being late and that was one thing that Laurent hated, Clark being late to anything.

"Reservation" the host greeted Clark before taking in his suit and shirt and then licking their lips. He was a decidedly scrumptious piece of meat dressed in his suit and the host was very willing to show their interests. Clark stood there for a moment before he heard the sound of a car pulling up to the curb where the front doors of the restaurant was, soon Clark could see flashing from cameras going off as the person made their way out of the car and towards the front door of the restaurant.

"Excuse you" a man with a bald head, that Clark swore had been at the _Julian_ building said as he pushed Clark out of the way and to the host stand, before being whisked off to some table that had three other people already there. Clark turned bright red at the anger that was running through his veins, that was the *second* time that had happened and he was just about to step over to tell the man off when Laurent came striding into the restaurant looking all sorts of amazing, as he tended to do on a daily basis anyway.

"Clark" Laurent said kissing Clark on the cheek and checking out the people in the restaurant, before gasping which had Clark turning and asking if he was okay.

"Just fine" Laurent said before stating the name for the reservation and then waiting as the host showed them to their table. Clark noticed right away that Laurent was distracted, so maybe his thought about him breaking things off had been right and the happiness from earlier had been a rouse to make sure that Clark wouldn't make a scene at the exclusive restaurant; but why come here if only to break things off?

"So" Clark said when it was apparent to him that Laurent was too deep in his people watching to carry a conversation with him. It was then he heard the other man mumbled under his breath something that set him on edge.

"I didn't know *he* would be here tonight" Laurent mumbled not even noticing that Clark had heard his words. So this was how it was? Laurent was cheating on him with someone in the restaurant, how…..whore-ish of him. Clark craned his neck to see if he could maybe spy who it was that had Laurent's attention but only came back to the table where the bald man that had pushed him, sat along with three others that looked to have been or be models. The sole woman of the group looked as if she had just stepped off the runway with her hair done to perfection and her dress hugging her body as if it was made just for her, and Clark thought that it might have just been made for her. The two men with the bald men also looked like models; both wearing the standard suit that was required of the restaurant but Clark knew that their suits probably cost more than his whole college loans did together. Clark chanced a glance at Laurent to see that he was still surveying the surroundings not really stopping at any particular table.

"Hello and welcome to Aureole, my name is Robert and I will be your waiter for the evening. Would you like to start out with a glass of wine this evening?" Their waiter asked looking at the both of them, Clark was uncertain on how much a glass of wine cost and he wasn't going to pay anymore than he had to if Laurent planned to break things off with him.

"I'm fine" Clark said before Laurent was agreeing to the glass of wine not even worrying about the price, it made Clark wonder but when Laurent's attention was again focused elsewhere, he began to form a speech in his brain on how best to go and break things off with Laurent. Sure he was a model but that didn't give him the right to treat him as if he was second best, there when Laurent didn't have anyone else to see or speak to. It was during their second course of the meal that Laurent decided to put a bit of attention on Clark, as he hadn't been doing the whole rest of the time.

"So" Laurent said not really looking at Clark but speaking to him anyway, this had Clark looking up and eyeing Laurent like he was crazy. Now he wanted to speak to him, whereas before any conversations had been shot down by the other man when chanced.

"Yeah" Clark said before sitting back and watching as Laurent started fidgeting, he was nervous about something but Clark couldn't figure out what. They had broken up before and Laurent had never been this fidgety the other times. Laurent had opened up his mouth but then closed it with a snap when he saw that the waiter was making his way over to their table with a stunned look on his face.

"For you" the waiter said setting down a glass of wine in front of Laurent, when asked where and who it came from the waiter only nodded his head towards the table with the bald man and the models at it.

"Oh, wow!" Laurent said before smiling and then giving a bit of a wave, it was at this time that Clark saw red. He was being treated like sloppy seconds to the bald man and he wasn't going to have it. He was tired of always having to try his hardest to keep the affection and attention of Laurent, so if Laurent wouldn't break things off he would and he would do it right now. That way it would free up Laurent to go and play with the bald man and his models, a place that it looked like Laurent wanted to be anyway.

"Laurent" Clark called out and didn't receive a response; he tried two more times before Laurent even noticed that he was sitting with someone else at his table.

"Why don't I make this easy for you" Clark finally said when he saw that he had Laurent's attention, Laurent on the other hand looked quite confused over Clark's words.

"What…."

"I think it is best that we don't see each other anymore, I'll get your things together at my apartment and if you could get mine together then that would be great and we can meet in the next couple of days to swap them" Clark said before standing and leaving, he certainly wasn't going to stay there and continue to watch Laurent drool over the bald guy and he knew that Laurent could afford to foot the bill until he got some cash so that he could pay the other man back.

"Clark!" Laurent shouted before making his way towards where Clark now stood waiting for his car from the valet. Clark acted as if he didn't hear Laurent calling his name, there was no need to go through this there.

"Clark" Laurent said once he caught up with Clark, who was still standing waiting for his car.

"What is going on" Laurent said confused, he had thought that he would have a nice dinner with his significant other, Clark and then spend the night with Clark. None of that seemed to be happening, instead Clark had broken up with him and Lex Luthor was sending him wine, he wasn't really sure what had happened but he was confused.

"Nothing" Clark said in answer to Laurent's words and it was true, nothing was going on which was the reason on why he was leaving.

"But I thought we could spend some time together"

"That would require you to be here"

"I am here" Laurent said confused on what Clark meant.

"Sure you were here for all of five seconds before you started scanning the restaurant and then you were gone" Clark said before handing the valet a couple of dollars as he got his keys and his car.

"What…" Laurent didn't get to finish what he was asking since it seemed the bald guy came out looking for Laurent. Clark just shook his head in the car and then sped away, not even looking back to see the conversation that was no doubt happening between the pair. Clark arrived home angry at himself for even thinking that Laurent was a good guy and was looking for a long term relationship. He guessed that when he picked Laurent up at a gay night club that it would indicate the type of person Laurent was, but he had held out hope and their relationship had been going on two years and was strong. It was definitely something that all his friends envied, but now he had nothing and maybe it was better that way. He always worried that Laurent would take his model status to the point where he was sleeping with the locals of where the fashion shoot was and then come home to him. It made him cringe at the thought of some of things that he knew that Laurent got up to, when he had met the man he had been a strung out model, looking for a way to score but Clark had taken him in and cleaned him up and now he was one of the most sought after male models of the industry. It had made Clark proud at the time when Laurent had come home, grin on his face with a check for fifty thousand dollars, a signing bonus for the new model agency that had signed him but now, well now he wished that he had never met him. Clark could say that he wasn't in love with Laurent but that didn't make the pain of the break up any less, it just made him realize that maybe hanging on was hurting the both of them. Laurent was a play boy if Clark ever saw one, and if he had been faithful as he stated to Clark on multiple occasions then he had changed and Clark was certain on one thing about people and that it was that they *don't* change. They had broken up a few times because of Laurent fucking or sucking some other man and being caught in the act. He had stated then that he was done with that sort of thing and that Clark was all he wanted, but it would only be a few months later that Laurent was back to doing the same thing. Clark arrived to his apartment with an almost lighter heart, he of course would miss Laurent but since he had prepared himself for the break up he was sort of glad that he was alone now, or again as the case may be.

"Clark call me, please!" Clark heard as he made his way into his apartment, it seemed that Laurent was leaving another message, since there was already a blinking five showing on the phone. Clark snorted, what was there to talk about? He didn't do pity fucks and he most certainly didn't do threesomes, so Clark figured that anything that Laurent had to say could be best said over a message. The phone rang a moment later as Clark was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich, Aureole wasn't known for their hearty portions. So the place left him angry and hungry, never a good thing when dealing with Clark.

"Clark! Please call me back!" Laurent said leaving yet another message, which of course made Clark, shake his head. They really had nothing to say to each other, but Clark figured that he would be courteous and call Laurent back and see what he wanted. Once finished with his sandwich did Clark make his way over to the where the phone sat in the cradle, picking it up and dialed Laurent's cell phone number and then waited for the phone to connect.

"Clark!" Laurent said picking up after the first ring.

"What do you want?" Clark growled out, he didn't want to deal with the drama of Laurent at the current moment in time. What he wanted to do was sit on his stool in front of his 40 inch flat panel TV and play video games. It had been a long day and he wasn't in the mood to deal with people especially Laurent, no his video game console called to him instead. Clark eyed the piece of equipment while Laurent rambled on about something that he had no interest in.

"Laurent, what do you want?" Clark said again when it seemed that Laurent had gotten off the subject of why he had called in the first place.

"Honey we can…."

"Work things out? Oh, give me a break Laurent. You were more focused on that bald guy than on me and since you were the one that asked me there it was the least you could do was actually pay attention to me" Clark said, he had grown up a lot since his time in Smallville. Gone was the shy pushover and instead now stood where there was still a shy man but he definitely didn't put up with people treating him like he wasn't worth the effort.

"Clark" Laurent said on the other end of the phone before Clark could hear that Laurent had placed his hand over the speaker of the phone. Seemed that even when he was on the phone Laurent was choosing someone over him. He hung up the phone; he didn't want to even be connected via phone to the other man at the current moment. The phone rang a moment later and Clark answered figuring that it was Laurent calling to see why he had hung up on the other man. He was right of course because Laurent's voice came through the phone clear and angry.

"Why did you hang up on me?"

"You seemed busy" Clark answered back, it wasn't like he was going to allow Laurent back in his life right now. He had possibly a new job and with that he had decided that maybe starting out fresh was the best idea for him. Find him a man that would appreciate him, unlike Laurent, who it seemed was in a conversation yet again while on the phone with him.

"Look, you can choose me or the person you are talking to" Clark said knowing that Laurent wasn't listening to him, and that was sort of the point for he was making the decision for Laurent to be cut out of his life.

"Laurent" Clark called and received no response back, it was then that Clark hung up the phone and didn't plan on answering it again. His video games could console him until such time that he decided that answering the phone wouldn't have Laurent on the other end of the phone.

"Drama queen" Clark said before flicking on his TV and then his video game console, it was the weekend and Clark planned to take all his free time and play with his 'little games' as Laurent called them when they got in the way of Clark's whole attention being directed at Laurent. Clark snorted at the thoughts that were running through his head, Laurent really was a drama queen and was quite vocal about it to and it made Clark wonder how he put up with such crap for so long. The phone rang a moment later as Clark's game loaded, which was some fighting game that he had gotten on sale at the mall.

"Clark" Laurent's voice screamed to him over the phone, he could tell that Laurent was in a car of some sort but that was about it. Clark really hope that Laurent wasn't coming over, he didn't want to deal with the man at the present moment in time. His game was finally loaded and he was ready to kick some ass, and he knew that if Laurent saw him sitting on his stool and playing video games that he would go off.

"I'm coming over" Clark heard before cursing in all the languages he knew, which were quite a few. Clark stood from his sitting on the stool and turned off each and every light in the apartment with only the TV lighting up the living room. That should slow Laurent down, and since he didn't own a cell phone; a total personal preference that had Laurent livid for days, the man couldn't call him to find out where he was. 'Perfect!' Clark thought while turning down the volume of the TV and then kicking some hybrid animal's ass in two rounds. The knock or more like banging on his door had him getting his ass kicked until he paused the game, to cease the ass kicking. He couldn't focus on the game and trying to stay quiet while Laurent was outside his door.

"I know you're in there, so open up" Laurent said through the door, and Clark hunkered down on his stool. He was _not_ going to move and he most certainly was _not_ going to answer the door.

"Clark" Laurent said now yelling through the door, he knew how much Clark hated drawing attention to himself and Laurent was doing a splendid job of drawing attention to Clark's door.

"Open up the door" Laurent said as if knowing that Clark was in there and deciding on if it was a good idea to answer the door or not. When Clark heard Laurent's cell phone ring, he breathed a sigh of relief. Laurent always answered his cell phone; it didn't matter the time of day or where he was at. It always bugged Clark, which was part of the reason for his no cell phone policy he made to himself.

"Laurent" Clark heard through the phone and then he could hear Laurent walking away from his door, talking fast and excited about something.

"Finally" Clark said before un-pausing the game and then proceeding to kick the hybrid animal's ass, thinking the whole time that it was Laurent or maybe the rude bald guy that he had run into twice now. For the rest of the weekend, Clark hid in his apartment with Laurent calling and stopping by to 'talk' to Clark about their evening on Friday. By Monday morning, Clark was glad to be going into work; that way Laurent couldn't hound him on the phone and he was well away from his apartment that Laurent had taken up to visiting at odd hours thinking he would catch Clark off guard or something.

"You have to be kidding me?" Clark heard as he walked into his department and over to his cube, which was in the farthest corner he could get away from the crazy women that he worked with.

"No, and the girl was knocking on her wall like I was going to answer her or something"

"Did you" another woman asked as Clark walked past the group of women that seemed to be holding court about the drama that had occurred over the weekend in one of the women's apartment complex.

"Hell to the nah, I didn't answer her knocking on the wall. She came to the door and wanted to know if I could watch her kids while she went to the club"

"To the club?" Clark heard before be placed on his headphones to drowned out the noise until such time that he could escape by doing a translation. Mondays were always slow, so Clark proceeded to log into his computer and then check his email, at least his work email before he noticed that one of his co-workers was standing at his desk.

"Hi" Clark said a pleasant smile on his face, he did not want to piss this woman off she was the admin for the office and doing so would put you in a world of hurt.

"Dani wants to talk to you" she said before turning and making her way back to where the women were still standing around listening to one woman tell her weekend story, yet again.

"Knock, knock" Clark said before walking into the office and giving his boss a smile. He so hoped that she didn't ask where he had been on Friday, he tried hard to make sure that the office knew as little as possible about his personal life and he had done a fairly good job of it. None of them in the office knew he was gay and had a model boyfriend, something he was quite proud of hiding from them. They were the gossip whores of the hospital and nothing ever got by them.

"How was your weekend?"

"Too short" Clark said before smiling and laughing a bit, he could see his boss was trying to get information out of him.

"As always" Dani said before she was leaning over her desk and giving Clark a hard stare, as if she knew what Clark had been up to on his day off. Clark was certain that she was going to start in on the 'not wanting to lose you speech' as she had done a few times before but she seem to think better of it and decided instead to lean back in her chair and then shooing Clark out of her office.

"Crazy" Clark mumbled to himself while making his way back to his cube. Clark spent the majority of the day sitting at his desk, since it seemed that Dani had decided that the seven others in the office had better start working. Maybe she knew something; she did always seem to have a way of knowing what went on in the office without anyone telling her. The others were not happy about when she came by their desks to ask about what they were doing, none of them had any work to speak of so she had gone and gotten a huge stack of papers that she said needed translation to multiple languages. She had passed those out and soon the office was quiet, no one willing to cross Dani since she was in some sort of mood. By the time that Clark arrived home, he was certain that Dani knew of his interview at _Julian_, he was certain of it. He wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew, at least he thought she knew. Clark wanted to groan when he was that Laurent was standing casually at his doorway, dressed in the most expensive pair of jeans and a t-shirt, with a bag of what looked to be food in his hands.

"Clark" Laurent said as if it was every day that he came over with a bag of food looking all sorts of welcome there.

"Laurent" Clark said eyeing the man and wondering what he wanted, well he did know what he wanted but Clark certainly wasn't going to give it to him that was for sure. He could go and ask bald guy to be his pussy for the night, although the bald guy didn't strike Clark as the type of guy to be the one taking it up the ass.

"I brought dinner"

"I see, but you can take that right back to your apartment" Clark said not unlocking the door to the apartment, Laurent would take that as in invitation and Clark wanted the man nowhere in his apartment at the current moment in time.

"Clark can we talk about this?" Laurent said before waving his free hand between the pair of them.

"Nothing to talk about" Clark said before leaning on the hallway wall near his apartment.

"Clark don't be like this" Laurent said stepping closer to Clark and then running a hand down Clark's face. Clark so wanted to lean into the heat of Laurent's hand but resisted, he knew that was what Laurent was looking for. It had been a long couple of months without Laurent there to wake up next to, but he had made do and he would continue to do so until he found someone that wanted him for him and not what he could be.

"Clark come on, it's just dinner" that was probably the worst thing that Laurent could have said to Clark at that moment in time. It had been dinner of Friday as well, but that had turned out to be a mess that Clark wanted to avoid thinking about at all costs and here Laurent was bringing it up, sort of.

"It was dinner on Friday but you seemed to be a bit busy then"

"Clark come on! Don't be like this!" Laurent said giving Clark a look that told him how much the other man was not enjoying the fight they were having in the hallway.

"Laurent just leave, or better yet" Clark said remembering the box of items he had at the front door for Laurent. Laurent's eyes lit up when he saw Clark unlock the door, but they dimmed when Clark pulled the box near the front door out and held it for Laurent.

"Clark" Laurent said his voice clearly telling Clark that this was not what he wanted, and usually what Laurent wanted Laurent got, but not this time. Clark had been hurt too many times by Laurent to break his resolve on breaking things off with Laurent, and for good this time.

"Just take the damn box and leave" Clark said going into his apartment and then slamming the door on Laurent's face. He didn't even bother to check and see if Laurent still stood there, for he had heard the cell phone ring just moments after he had slammed the door. Once he was certain that he was alone did Clark make his way towards where his phone sat with a blinking 2 on it, telling him he had two messages; Clark pressed the play button and listening to the first message which was Laurent telling him he would be by for dinner and some talking. Clark deleted the message as soon as possible leaving one more message, Clark was pretty certain it was either his mother or some collector looking for C. Kent that hadn't paid some bill or another.

"This message is for Clark Kent, my name is Alicia Baker and I am with _Julian _Magazine and we would like to offer you the position of Arabic Translator for the magazine. If you could call me back at 555-2539, as soon as possible, thank you and I look forward to hearing from you" Clark was stunned, they wanted him! They really wanted him! Clark whooped for joy before dialing the farm phone number.

"Kent Farms, Martha speaking" Clark's mom said before she heard her son's voice.

"What's got you so excited?"

"They are going to offer me the job" Clark said a huge grin on his face, he just couldn't help it.

"Wow, oh wow" Martha said to her son before sitting down in a chair. She figured that anyone with a brain would realize what a talent her son had but for a magazine such as _Julian_ to take notice was a huge deal. She had tried and failed to tell her son that _Julian_ was a magazine that was known worldwide, but he had brushed off her words and told her that he didn't really care.

"I'll call them first thing tomorrow morning" Clark said excited before laughing at the excitement he left, he wasn't really sure on how he planned to give his notice at the hospital but he figured he would worry about that tomorrow when he was certain he had the job. Right now he just had a message that said they wanted to offer him the job, they could try and yank him around on his salary and he would still be stuck at his dead end job at the hospital.

"You do that dear, so how did dinner with Laurent go?" Martha asked not knowing that there had been a big blow up between the pair.

"Not so great, he was busy searching the restaurant most of the time and when I called him on it, he acted as if he didn't know what I was talking about."

"Well that doesn't sound good"

"No, so I told him that it might be best that we not see each other"

"Clark"

"He was too busy drooling over some guy at the restaurant to really put up too much of a fight"

"If you think it is for the best" Martha said happy that Clark had finally gotten rid of Laurent, she didn't like the man and never had. She thought he wasn't good enough for her son, and when she found out that he had been strung out on drugs at one point in time, any points he had gained were lost and he was in the 'not good enough' column in her mind.

"I think so and with this new job…." Clark said holding out hope that maybe he would be able to meet someone at work that would be better for him than Laurent.

"A fresh start" Martha said before she and Clark chatted for a bit more before ending the call. It was just as soon as Clark hung up the phone that it rang again, he was pretty sure that it was Laurent but he answered anyway.

"Clark" Kara Kent's voice came through the phone, Clark sighed at the voice. She was almost bad if not worse than Laurent about certain things.

"Kara"

"So do you know anything?" Kara asked excited with the idea of her cousin working at _Julian_. She already was planning her first visit to the building when Clark began work there, she was going to make herself available for Lex Luthor and hopefully he would notice her and whisk her away.

"Well they called" Clark said before he heard Kara squeal like she was ten years old or something.

"This is so great!"

"I didn't accept the job" Clark said trying to fight with Kara and telling her that just because she and Lana Lang wanted him to accept the job that he wasn't going to.

"Of course you will!" Kara said in a scandalous tone, as if the mere thought of him not accepting was offensive.

"I have to see what they are offering first" Clark said before he listened to Kara yell at him for ten minutes before then hanging up on him and saying that she wouldn't speak to him until he came to senses.

"Thank god" Clark said happy that he knew that Kara wouldn't be calling for a while; instead it would Lana no doubt. Kara and Lana were thick as thieves and if one was mad at him then the other would do their dirty work, it had been that way since high school and that had been almost ten years now. For the rest of the evening Clark bounced around his apartment thinking about what sort of benefits the magazine had and what they would offer as his salary. The next morning Clark was up and ready for work early so that he could call Alicia Baker at _Julian_ before going into work. He didn't think it would take too long for them to offer the job to him.

"Alicia Baker" a woman's voice answered the phone number that Clark had dialed.

"Hello, my name is Clark Kent and you left a message for me" Clark said before he heard some papers being shuffled and then Alicia was speaking.

"Correct, _Julian_ Magazine's translation department would like to offer you the Arabic translator position"

"Okay" Clark said smiling into the phone; it felt good to know that someone else wanted him besides the hospital.

"Is it possible for you to come in to talk about the offer?" Alicia said looking at her calendar on her computer screen and seeing that she had a bit of time that day for Clark.

"Uh sure" Clark said wondering if he would be able to get to leave work with Dani watching him like a hawk now.

"Well I have some time at 2:30, is that okay?"

"Great" Clark said happy that it was later in the day, which meant that he could play that he had an appointment that he would be at for the rest of the day.

"I'll see you then, do you know where the HR department is?"

"Yes, I remember" Clark said shuttering at the thought of having to deal with the woman who worked the front desk of the HR department.

"Excellent, see you then" Alicia said before saying goodbye and then hanging up the phone.

"Now to get Dani to agree" Clark said before making his way out the door and then to his car so that he could make his way to work. Clark arrived on time and made his way over to Dani's office to ask for the second half of the day off, for some appointment that he had forgotten about until last night when they left a message on his phone.

"Clark" Dani said surprised to see Clark so early in the morning in her office. She always made time to visit with the shy but handsome man that worked in her department.

"Ummm, I'm going to need the second half of the day off" Clark blurted out, no point in beating around the bush that was for sure.

"Oh" Dani said, she had the feeling that Clark had been looking for a new job and she couldn't really blame him since the department was in total chaos most of the time which left him picking up the slack something that she had worried about.

"Is that okay"

"Yes, that is fine. Just fill out a PTO request and I will sign it. Is everything okay?" Dani asked concerned that maybe Clark was having some medical issues that she didn't know about.

"Yeah" Clark said before making his way back to desk to fill out the form that Dani had requested. Once he had it signed he spent the rest of the morning translating some research forms into Spanish, since it seemed that the study was targeted to the Hispanic population. Clark left work at 2 o'clock, figuring that would give him enough time to get to the _Julian_ building and find a parking spot. Luck was with Clark again since he managed to find a spot with little trouble before he was locking his car and making his way to the large glass and metal building that still held perfect people standing outside and inside of the building. Clark made a bee line over to the elevators and then pressed the up arrow, hoping that he wouldn't have a run in with the bald guy that he had the last time. He wasn't sure he would be able to hold his tongue if he did, Clark was lucky since no one entered the elevator with him as he made his way up to the tenth floor where the HR department.

"Can I help you?" The front desk woman asked sneering at Clark and what he had on, he of course didn't have a business suit or something that looked like it cost a million bucks but there was no need to be rude to him.

"I have an appointment to see Alicia Baker" Clark said before the woman was clacking away on her keyboard and then telling him to sit while she called Alicia to tell her that her appointment was here.

"Hello, Alicia Baker" a woman mid-length blonde hair said with her hand out waiting for Clark to shake it. She was a bit stunned that someone that looked as good as Clark did was going to be working down in the Translation Department with Chloe Sullivan. Most thought that the department was a laugh and a half with most of them looking like pen protector nerds, not something that the magazine was known for.

"Clark Kent" Clark said shaking her hand before he was escorted past the horrible front desk woman and back to where Alicia's office was located.

"Have a seat" Alicia said pointing to one of the chairs that sat in her office, she was still shocked over Clark's looks and she wasn't going to be the one to let him get away from _Julian_ that was for sure. They were trying to project an image and with the dork patrol residing in the Translation Department, _Julian_ wasn't being represented well at all. Chloe Sullivan was the only saving grace of the department, but it seemed that they would be adding another person to that group as well.

"Arabic Translator" Alicia said before asking Clark a couple of questions, which Clark knew had nothing to do about the job.

"Now let's get down to business" Alicia said before pulling out another file and then looking it over and nodding her head as if she was agreeing to something on the paper.

"_Julian_ is willing to offer you sixty thousand dollar, annually and benefits that begin the first day of your employment" Alicia was quite worried that Clark wouldn't take the offer, it was a bit low for the language he was translating, but she wasn't known as the best HR rep for nothing. Clark took in the number, it was much higher than what he had searched and found on the internet but he could tell he could get more. Arabic wasn't a language that most people were trying to learn, so he figured that he could manage get a few more thousands of dollars before giving in.

"I was hoping for a bit more since the language is…..complex to learn and to maintain fluency….." Clark sai;, he wasn't really sure on how best to go about asking for more money without sounding greedy.

"Very true, let me see what I can do" Alicia said before she got on the phone and called Chloe, she was after all the person pushing for the hiring. If the man wanted more money than she was all for giving it to him, at least for him, she need only to get approval from the department's director. After a brief conversation that Clark was certain he was the center of, Alicia hung up the phone and then presented him with another offer.

"I spoke with the director of the department and they are willing up go up to seventy-five thousand dollars and benefits that start on day one" Clark was speechless, he had figured they would bump up the number to sixty-five and he would accept, now he was getting well over fifteen thousand dollars extra, talk about negotiations!

"That would be fine" Clark said after he got over the fact that he would be making two times more than what he was making at the hospital, that was one good thing about the private sector. They always paid better and benefits were pretty good as well, although working at a hospital gave you a bit of freedom on your medical care since things were much cheaper for employees than for outside patients.

"Excellent" Alicia said before she began writing up some paperwork to get the whole process started with Clark.

"When would be the soonest you could start?" Alicia asked looking at the calendar and figuring out which New Hire Orientation he would be able to go into and when he would meet with Lex Luthor. It was company policy that every new employee meet with Lex, and it seemed that in the next couple of weeks they would be lucky to get any of the new hires to meet the man. It was a busy time at the magazine and the fashion world as a whole, but Lex always made sure to meet with his new employees. He said it made him more accessible, Alicia thought he was crazy. Most feared him and stayed clear of him and the twentieth floor, where his office and his assistants were located.

"Well I would have to give my two weeks at my current job" Clark explained before Alicia was shooting a date at him that was after the two week mark.

"I think that would be fine" Clark said before Alicia began speaking again.

"When you arrive there will be signs telling you where to go, you can dress in business casual attire until you reached your department. Which is where they will tell you the dress code policy for the department, since you are in the Translation Department, I don't think you have to worry too much" Alicia said, before blushing. She was already giving secrets about the company and their policies to Clark, she hadn't meant to but she had seen how uncomfortable he had become when she started talking about dress code, at least for the orientation so she began to try and talk him down, so to speak.

"Okay, what time do I need to arrive?"

"8 AM" Alicia said before she handed over a folder to Clark that had the name _Julian_ on the front done in purple and the folder was black, and odd combination Clark thought but didn't question it.

"All of the information I told you is in this packet, now if you could just sign this for me" Alicia said handing over the offer letter that was required by Lex for all hires. Clark looked it over and saw what it was and then signed where indicated.

"See you in a couple of weeks" Alicia said after shuffling some more papers and having Clark sign a few others that would allow her to set him up for the new hire orientation in a couple of weeks. Clark soon left the HR department and the building with a lighter heart. He had a job! A better job no less. Clark rode all the way home with a grin on his face; he was going to make a killing at something he loved to do. The hospital had been a great place to start out but he had been there for two years and in that time he was the one person in the department that seemed to care about the work that they did. The smile that was on Clark's face fell off as soon as he saw the pretentious car sitting outside of his building. It seemed that Laurent had come for a visit, something he was hoping wouldn't occur for a while.


	4. A Sexy Gnat and a Job Propsal

"I just can't get a break can I?" Clark said to the empty inside of his car as he pulled into his parking spot and then made his way to his apartment.

"Clark" Laurent said standing by his door again, dressing as he had before in probably the most expensive pair of jeans and t-shirt out there on the market.

"Laurent what do you want?"

"Can we talk?"

"What is there to talk about?" Clark said he was really quite tired of this game that Laurent was playing and he knew it was a game. He had played it before with the other man, Laurent would show up until he wore Clark down and took him back and then things would proceed as if they had never broken up in the first place.

"Us"

"There is no us any more" Clark said knowing that this would piss Laurent off.

"That is the problem"

"Well that sounds like a personal problem" Clark said before glaring at Laurent, he was not going to feel like a total heel for dumping Laurent because he couldn't keep his eyes to himself while he was out with his boyfriend.

"Clark" Laurent said with a sigh, as if it was physically paining him to explain to Clark the situation at the restaurant once again.

"Look, just leave" Clark said before opening up his door and then slamming the door in Laurent's face. He was certain that the other man thought he was going to let him in to talk, but he had been wrong.

"We will talk about this" Laurent said as his parting shot before making his way back out to his car and then speeding down the street angry that his plan to get Clark to take him back didn't work, as it had before.

"I swear" Clark said before making his way over to the phone and dialing the number to the farm.

"Kent Farms, Martha speaking"

"Hey mom" Clark said trying to hide his excitement, he soooo wanted to tell her the good news but figured he could play with her a bit beforehand.

"So how did it go?"

"You know" Clark said before his mother squeaked at him to just tell her.

"I have a new job!" Clark crowed before laughing at his mother and her telling him not to do that to his old mother.

"You're not old mom" Clark said before laughing again when he thought about how much money he was going to be making. It would more than help out at the farm, he had been sending part of his salary back to the farm to make sure that the land and house weren't taken away from his parents. Now he had more than enough money to send to his parents so that they could finally send their organic produce further than just Smallville.

"So spill already" his mother said before she listened to Clark's story about how he had negotiated for more money.

"How much more"

"Oh…fifteen thousand more" Clark said before laughing at the scream his mother gave at the amount of money he had managed to get out of the magazine.

"I'm proud of you for that, but how *much* are you brining home?"

"Ummm…." Clark was a bit uncertain on how to tell his mother the amount of money he would be making yearly; it was something that left him uncomfortable.

"Clark"

"Seventy-five thousand yearly with benefits from day one" Clark said quickly before there was silence from his mother on the phone.

"Mom" Clark said when his mother didn't speak for a few moments, and then minutes.

"Seventy-five thousand?"

"Yeah"

"Clark" Martha finally said snapping out of her stupor and then whooping around the kitchen until his father came in and heard the good news.

"How much?!" Clark heard his father say and then his mother telling him and then he was pretty sure he could hear them dancing.

"I'm still here you know" Clark joked before the three of them were planning out things for the farm. That was how Clark spent the rest of his night, on the phone with his parents planning out things that were needed for the farm or that they could do with their organic produce. Clark had suggested that they maybe go to the Metropolis Farmer's Market one weekend and try to sell their goods before making any commitments. His parents agreed and then let him off the phone when they realized how long they had been on the phone with him. Clark fell asleep with thoughts of produce and translations running through his dreams. The next morning was a morning that he was dreading; he was to give his two weeks' notice to Dani. Clark arrived as he always did and even managed to find a parking spot on the second level of the parking garage before making his way into the hospital and then to the translation department. When he arrived he noticed that none of his coworkers were up and chatting that morning, had there been a meeting about that while he was gone, Clark wondered.

"Clark" Dani said before she was pulling him into her office. She had spoken to the VP of the department and got an okay to offer Clark more money. Anything really to keep him there, he was the only worker that actually did any work.

"Have a seat" Dani said pointing to one of the chairs in her office.

"Is everything okay?" Clark asked, he was a bit concerned on the change in the office but since he was going to give his two weeks he wasn't too concerned.

"Well we are making some changes here in the office and I wanted to know if you have been looking for a new job?"

"Yeah" Clark said sort of relieved to be telling Dani this, it would make it easier to break that he was leaving to her.

"And have you found anything?"

"A position as an Arabic Translator" Clark said not saying where the job was, just what the job was.

"And have they offered you the job" She knew she was toeing the line on this, but she needed to know if there was any sort of chance at keeping Clark at the hospital.

"Yeah"

"I know it isn't my place but how much have they offered?"

"Uh" Clark said clearly unsettled with the way the conversation had gone.

"Clark I have been working hard with the VP of the department to get things back up to shape from the previous director's actions"

"Oh" Clark said having heard about how the previous director was much better than the one they had currently from some overheard conversation of his co-workers.

"We want to keep you here, and we are very *willing* to fight for you"

"Oh, um" Clark said speechless, he had never thought that his department director was willing to fight to keep him there. He just figured that she thought he came to collect a pay check like the rest of the workers in the department.

"So how much"

"…."Clark said nothing for a moment before deciding to see if the hospital was willing to go above the amount that the magazine had.

"Clark"

"Seventy-five" he said and then watched as the stunned look over took her face.

"Private sector, I assume"

"Yes" Clark agreed before Dani was leaning back in her chair, shocked and amazed. Clark didn't strike her as the type of person to fight for what he was worth; he would just sort of take what he got and work up from there.

"If we could offer more or the same would you stay?" Clark had to think about the question. Would he be willing to stay at the hospital if they were willing to match or beat what he had been offered?

"Yes" Clark said he liked his job well enough and if they planned to get rid of his co-workers than he was willing to love his job but only if they met or exceeded what he was offered by _Julian_.

"Let me get with the VP and see what we can do?" Dani said before dismissing him to his desk where he signed into his computer and then spent a good portion of the morning translating the research documents, yet again. It was just after lunch, from which he had managed to evade Laurent since he had shown up to the hospital looking for him, that Dani came to his desk looking grim.

"Follow me" she said as they made their way back to her office. The office by now was speculating on what was really going on in the office, why it had quiet, shy Clark in there for the second time that day.

"So I spoke with the VP and the best we can do is sixty-five"

"Oh" Clark said a bit down, he had hoped that they would meet the offer he had at _Julian_ but it seemed not to be.

"Since you aren't going to focus on one particular language it is the best we can do, with the current market values"

"I see" Clark said thinking that since he wasn't focused on one language that he was worth more, not less.

"Then I'm sorry, but I need to give my two weeks' notice" Clark said he was going to stand firm, his parents needed the extra money and he wasn't going to buckle under the pressure.

"I understand; would it be alright if you maybe worked on a consulting basis?" Dani said not wanting to let him go entirely.

"Um, sure" Clark said stunned, he was going to make even more money! How had this happened?

"Excellent!" Dani said excited, they weren't losing Clark entirely, sure he had a new job but she would make sure that they sent out anything that was important to him until such time that they could woo him back to the hospital.

"Just write up the notice letter and then I will get things rolling on the consulting status for you"

"Okay" Clark said before opening his mouth to ask about money and things like that.

"You know how things work here, so HR will call you in a bit" Dani said a smile on her face before shooing him out of her office so that she could get things rolling. It might be best if Clark was gone, that way when they got rid of the rest of the office they wouldn't be able to have a grudge against him for being the only person that was allowed to stay. This was working out better than she had planned. Clark made his way to his desk, shocked for all of three seconds before one of his co-workers came over and started asking questions. Clark gave them nothing and then they were sent back to their desk to speculate over what was really going on. Clark quickly began typing up his notice letter and then made his way back to Dani's office before handing her the letter; she took it and then gave Clark a grin and told him she was on the phone with HR as he stood there.

"Clark" the admin said as soon as he made his way out of Dani's office.

"Uh, yeah" Clark said he was pretty certain that the admin wasn't going to ask him what was going on, but he could never be too sure.

"There's some guy here for you" she said before her eyes drifting over to where Laurent stood looking all sorts of sexy. Clark had to laugh; the admin in the office was less than impressed with Laurent, unlike the rest of the office; who were drooling over him.

"What do you want" Clark growled to Laurent, this was getting ridiculous; showing up at his job now for the second time?

"We need to talk"

"No we don't and don't you ever come back here" Clark growled/whispered before pushing Laurent out the door and then stalking to his desk. Oh he was pissed, it was one thing for Laurent to show up at his apartment but it was another for him to show up at his place of work twice. He had told Laurent multiple times during their relationship that he was never to come to the hospital for any reason that didn't deal with seeking out medical care from the ER or one of the clinics there.

"I'm going to kill him slowly and painfully" Clark mumbled at his desk, trying hard not to listen in as his co-workers went nuts over Laurent and 'wasn't he the model for the Ed Hardy line and possibly the Gucci eyewear line as well?' Clark was in the middle of planning his murder of Laurent when his phone rang at his desk.

"Translation Department, this is Clark" Clark answered the phone, not recognizing the extension that was calling him.

"This is Meghan from HR"

"Oh, hello" Clark said surprised to be hearing from HR so soon, he knew Dani could move fast but this fast? And at the city hospital no less, which was really saying something.

"You got some time?"

"Sure"

"Can you come on down to the basement then, in say ten minutes?"

"Sure" Clark said remembering where the HR department was in the hospital. When he had been guided there for the first time he thought the people had lost their minds, but when he arrived to the HR office and saw that there were actually people that worked in the basement of the hospital he had breathed a sigh of relief.

"See you then" the woman said before hanging up the phone and then Clark was locking up his computer and making his way to the elevators that would take him down to the basement and to where HR and a few other departments were for the hospital. Once he arrived he was escorted back by Meghan and then they started negotiating an amount for his consulting services. He would still basically work for the hospital but it would be on a part-time basis. Clark walked out of the HR department stunned, he was making one hundred and ten thousand dollars now yearly all totaled. He wasn't sure when fate decided to play with him, but he was willing to take all she was willing to give him. This would help his parents out even more, and to top it off he was going to continue making the same thing that he made now at the hospital. It seemed that the whole department was going to have a major overhaul and that meant salaries too.

"Clark" Dani said smiling at him when he came back from the HR department, seeing that things looked to have gone well.

"Wow"

"I thought you might say that" Dani said before she began asking him about Laurent.

"A friend"

"Well that is one very fine looking friend"

"Sure" Clark said knowing what she was talking about, hell most of the office seemed to think so as well with the exception of the admin.

"If I wasn't married" Dani joked before she made her way back to her office to finish whatever it was that she had been working on before Clark came back into the office. By the time Clark logged back in to his computer, he saw he only had about ten minutes before it was time to go, so he instead packed up the few personal items he had brought in a box and then made his way to the time clock to clock out for the day. Clark made his way to his car and saw that Laurent's car was sitting outside of the hospital without its owner. A grin formed on Clark's face; oh Laurent would be pissed when he saw a ticket on his car for not parking in the correct location for visitors of the hospital. A police officer of the hospital was standing near his car talking on his cell phone, when Clark made his way over to where the officer stood.

"Excuse me" Clark said a smile on his face as he carried his box of items.

"Can I help you?" The office asked before he noticed that Clark still had his badge on.

"Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that there is a car parked in the fire zone" Clark said before tipping his head to where Laurent's car sat empty.

"Well" the officer said before eyeing Clark and then making his way to his car and getting out the book to write a ticket for the owner of the car.

"Thank you" the officer said before watching as Clark made his way back down the hill to the parking garage so that he could leave. Clark laughed all the way to his car and once inside the car he made sure to drive by to see if Laurent had arrived back to car to see the ticket.

"What the hell?!" Clark heard Laurent shout as he made his way back to his car with sunglasses on and looking very much like he just rolled out of a magazine ad. "Classic" Clark said watching as Laurent read the ticket and began to fume over what it said. Clark's car pulled away from the stop sign and passed Laurent and his car before he arrived to the traffic light at the entrance of the hospital. By the time that Clark got home he saw that his answering machine had ten messages. Clark placed his box on the ground and pressed the play button on the machine and then listened to Laurent who seemed to have called all ten times.

"Classic" Clark said watching as Laurent read the ticket and began to fume over what it said. Clark's car pulled away from the stop sign and passed Laurent and his car before he arrived to the traffic light at the entrance of the hospital. By the time that Clark got home he saw that his answering machine had ten messages. Clark placed his box on the ground and pressed the play button on the machine and then listened to Laurent who seemed to have called all ten times.

"When will he get the clue?" Clark asked while shaking his head, Laurent was acting as if being without Clark was a major problem for the other man. Clark knew that Laurent wouldn't leave him alone until his model agency would supply him with another job, so Clark really hoped that the man would have another assignment and soon and very, very far away from him. He didn't need to be fighting with the other man at his new job; _Julian_ Magazine didn't seem like the kind of place that would take to kindly to relationship issues at the workplace. When Clark saw that there were ten messages on his phone, he knew he had to do something about Laurent; things were becoming out of hand that was for sure.

"Mom, she'll know what to do" Clark said deleting all the messages and then calling his mother. She always seemed to know what to do when Clark was having relationship troubles, which wasn't often as he had been dating Laurent for two years and before that he had pretty much kept to himself since he had been in his last year of college. Even during college he limited his going out because of his major, it didn't look good when you began to sing songs in different languages because you were drunk out of your mind.

"Kent Farms, Martha speaking" Martha answered on the second ring after Clark had dialed the farm's phone number.

"Hey mom" Clark said a bit excited to be telling her that he would be bringing home even more money for the farm. His father had loved the whole idea of them selling at the Metropolis Farmer's Market, it was a much larger market than Smallville but with the limited funds they had getting to and from the large city from Smallville didn't make it worth their while.

"So how are things?" She asked knowing that Clark was having Laurent troubles still, the other man just didn't know when to stop. He never had and she figured he never would.

"Fine, Laurent came to work and 'talk' to me"

"Clark" Martha said before sighing, it was one of her disappointments that her son had been taught to be as meek and submissive as he was. Most of that came from spending too much time with them on the farm, and watching as his father laid down the law and she just nodding her head to everything he said. It was the same for Clark, her husband would lay down the law and Clark had better follow them or else.

"I know mom, but when I was leaving today I made him get a ticket for parking in the wrong area"

"Good one" Martha said laughing before asking on the reason for Clark to be calling.

"Well my director at work wanted to keep me there"

"Oh! That's great Clark!" Martha gushed; things were actually going well for her son for once in his life.

"Well they couldn't meet what _Julian_ Magazine was offering but they offered for me to stay on part-time and do some consulting work"

"Wow! Just wow!" Martha said before plunking herself in a nearby chair. Her baby was all grown up and bringing in a lot of money doing something he loved. Jonathan Kent had been livid when he found out that Clark's major was foreign Language/Linguistics and nothing business as he had decided for his son, not though Jonathan could say nothing bad about Clark and his choice of work since it seemed to be bringing in enough that he could send money back home to them to help out with the bills that came with owning a farm.

"So how much are you making doing the consulting work? Is it by the job or something?"

"What I make now for any type of translations that are needed"

"You have to be kidding me!" Martha shouted which brought her husband into the house worried that something bad was going on inside the house.

"No"

"That's….that's one hundred and ten thousand dollars you are making" Martha said before she heard her husband sitting in a chair near her.

"Yeah, so more money for you guys" Clark said before laughing, he knew both of his parents were in shock, hell he was in shock but it made him feel great. He was doing what he loved and getting paid very good money doing so.

"Oh Clark" Martha said not wanting her son to be spending all of his money on the farm.

"It's alright mom" Clark said not wanting to fight with his parents about the money that he was sending home, he knew that most men and women his age did nothing that he did for his parents but they had always been there for him and he was going to help out the best way he knew how and that was through sending money home.

"Clark, just don't worry about us all the time" Martha said before she ended that thought with a question about when he would be starting his new job.

"Two weeks from today, actually" Clark said realizing that it was Monday, jeez he had another two weeks before starting his new job.

"Well I won't keep you" Martha said when it was clear that Clark didn't have much else to say to her.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later" Clark said before saying goodbye to his mom and dad before making his way to the kitchen to find something to eat. He had totally forgotten to eat since he had been shaking his head at all of the messages that Laurent had left for him. While Clark made himself dinner, which was plenty of bacon sandwiches with a side of toast the phone rang.

"Hello" Clark answered the phone while flipping over the latest batch of bacon in the frying pan.

"Clark" Laurent said his voice clearly telling Clark that he was happy about something.

"What" Clark said before fighting with the stove since there seemed to be some smoke coming from the pan.

"I have an assignment!" Laurent gushed before going on to where, when and for how long; almost like Clark should care.

"And you're telling me this, why?" Clark asked as he turned off the burner to the stove and then pulling out the bread, mayo, lettuce and other items he used to put on his bacon sandwiches.

"Well…" Laurent said clearly confused on Clark's reaction, he was still pretty sure that they were together and it would only be a matter of time before Clark realized that.

"We aren't together Laurent so you don't have to keep me up to speed on your next job" Clark said before snorting, there had been a few jobs that Laurent had conveniently forgotten to tell him about due to who was there and the thought that Laurent may be bedding them.

"Clark" Laurent said before sighing, he had wanted to at least be semi-okay with Clark before he left for France for about two months but it seemed that Clark was going to be difficult about this.

"Have fun" Clark said before hanging up the phone and digging into his meal, he was quite hungry now that his dinner was ready for him. For the next two weeks, Clark went to work did his job and came home to an empty apartment and at least one message from Laurent; who was in France now, to just check in. Clark thought it was the stupidest thing ever, Laurent hadn't bothered to do that before but now with Clark out of his life he wanted to be the perfect boyfriend, well it was too late in Clark's book but he knew that Laurent would try until he wore him down. 


	5. Two Weeks Later and Lex Who?

Monday morning two weeks later had Clark making his way into the _Julian_ Magazine building nervous. He saw the looks that he was getting from most of the employees as he made his way to the New Hire Orientation, as the signs stated. Clark arrived to a large conference room that had about ten chairs set out at a few tables.

"Hello" a girl with short brown hair said a smile on her face before she saw what Clark had on.

"Hi" Clark said looking at the sheet of paper that listed the names of the new hires on it.

"Clark Kent" the girl said before she gave him a packet that had some items that no one else had.

"What's this?"

"Your director gave this to us" the girl explained before Clark made his way over to an empty table and chairs and then looking over the stuff he had been given. Clark soon was deep in the New Hire Orientation and was so busy that when the end of the day came, Clark was glad to see it. He now had a employee badge that would let him into the building at any time and he also had a map that told him where things were located. Clark wasn't too worried about things that were on floors that he wouldn't be located on so he stuffed the map into the bag that the HR department supplied to all the new hires in his orientation.

"That was fun" Clark mumbled to himself as he made his way to his car so that he could make his way home. He no longer needed to clock in or out for what he was grateful, he always hated trying to figure on when he could and couldn't clock in at the beginning and end of the day. The next morning after Clark fought with his hair for a bit, it was after all getting a big longer than he liked and was dressed for work; Clark made his way to the _Julian_ Magazine building where it seemed even at the early hour that he had arrived that there were still perfect people milling about the building. Clark made a bee line over to the elevators before he heard the bing of the elevator, good thing it was going down since most if not all of the people that had come up to the elevator while he waited were going up. Clark would have loved for the bald guy from before to come striding over and Clark pushing him out of the way and telling him that the elevator was going down.

"There you are!" Chloe Sullivan said in greeting to Clark, she had been a bit afraid that Clark wouldn't return when he went through the long and boring as all get out New Hire Orientation but it seemed he had endured and now he was here.

"Hi" Clark said before smiling at Chloe and then began listening to her as she rattled off things that he needed to know about the department.

"Okay, here" Clark said before passing over a cell phone to Clark.

"Uh, I don't do cell phones" Clark said, not really wanting to explain the reason on why he didn't do cell phones. His cousin hated the fact that she *had* to call his home number when she wanted to get in touch with him.

"Well this is business related" Chloe said pressing the phone into Clark's hand. She had noticed that Clark had no cell phone number and so she had gone to the HR department and demanded that they get him one for emergencies. They of course had jerked her around for a good bit before she stated that if they thought that not having a way to communicate to this particular translator was a good idea then they could tell Mr. Luthor is something went wrong. They had scrambled then and gotten Clark a cell phone and only the HR department along with Chloe had the number.

"But"

"No one but me and HR have the number, just in case" Chloe said before she pulled her empty hand back and then turned and showed Clark to his cube and the jazzy computer that sat inside.

"It has a door"

"It does" Chloe said before she started in on how all of the workers down here needed their own spaces and that this cubes allowed for that sort of thing.

"Wow" Clark said before taking a seat in the chair that sat at the desk and then looking around. He was really here!

"Well, I'll leave you to get settled in for a bit and then I will show you around to the rest of the department" Chloe said before making her way back to her office to make sure that she had everything in order so that Clark could get started right away on his translating of the latest edition of _Julian_ into Arabic.  
>Clark soon got into the swing of things <em>Julian<em> and he was soon coming and going from the building almost as if he belonged. The rest of the building, besides his own department, seemed to think he was a bit below them but he didn't care. He was getting a nice paycheck and he wasn't too concerned over what the others thought. They weren't paying his bills that was for sure, he was still receiving his daily call from Laurent and he was beginning to sort of think that maybe he would give the other man a chance. That had been right up until Laurent had called one night drunk as a skunk and was going on about how many men he had fucked while in Paris, that had put to bed any thoughts that Clark was having about giving the other man another chance. It was a Thursday morning, two weeks later that Clark's cell phone began to ring, while he was away from his desk making copies of some forms that Chloe had given to him that needed to be completed. When Clark returned back to his cube he saw that his cell phone that he always left on the desk when at work was blinking indicating that there was message. He was a bit confused on who could be calling him on the cell phone since the only people who had the number were Chloe and HR, but Clark opened the phone to check just in case. A number that Clark didn't recognize popped up on the screen, and the phone also stated that the person had left a message. Looking around Clark tried to spy Chloe to ask her what was going on but he was unable to find her, so Clark called the voicemail number and waited for the woman to guide him to his message.

"I expect that black dress that I saw the other day to be in my office when I arrive tomorrow morning" the message said before the message ended because the caller hung up the phone. Clark was a bit confused on what was going on, he didn't know anything about a black dress that the caller had seen the other day. Hell he wasn't even fashion forward, so he was pretty certain that the caller had gotten the wrong number.

"Clark" Chloe said a bit later when she arrived back from some meeting she had been at.

"Uh Chloe" Clark said before be explained the message and watched as Chloe paled.

"That was Mr. Luthor"

"Who?" Here Chloe could only gape; Clark didn't know who Lex Luthor was!

"Lex Luthor, the man behind LexCorp and _Julian_ Magazine"

"Oh" Clark said now really confused on why the man was calling his phone talking about a black dress. Was it some sort of test?

"I don't know what to tell you Clark" Chloe said, she didn't need one of her translators doing the work of the assistants that Lex paid way too much to have but she also knew that if it didn't happen someone's head would roll and the people at HR would make sure it was her's.

"Well it shouldn't be too hard to do right?" Clark said deciding that hey, he could do this, this one time and then that would give Chloe time to clear up anything that may have been not communicated over in HR about the cell phone number.

"I hope not" Chloe said before she was shooing Clark out of the department and to the eight floor where the penderie was located that should hold the dress that Lex Luthor was talking about. Clark arrived to the eighth floor a bit scared that he wouldn't come out alive, there were tons of people on the floor running to and from large racks of clothing.

"What" a woman with a thick brown hair said looking at Clark and then sneering at his outfit. 'A pocket protector from the basement' the woman thought while she watched as Clark shifted on his feet, uncertain on how to ask about the dress without getting eaten alive.

"I'm looking for a black dress" this had the woman stopping and then staring at Clark.

"For you?"

"Uh, no" Clark said blushing bright red, he was *not* a cross-dresser even if Laurent had tried on occasion to get him to go out as a girl.

"Well" the woman said clearly not having the time to deal with Clark and his bashfulness.

"Mr. Luthor" at those words most of the people on the floor stopped what they were doing and stood to listen to Clark finish speaking. It wouldn't do for Mr. Lex Luthor to arrive to the penderie and see what a mess it was. The man was OCD when it came to the penderie and the organization that was required of the floor.

"Yes"

"Uh wants to see the black dress he saw the other day in his office" Clark said figuring that he could pawn off the request to these capable people and then back to his hole in the basement.

"Black dress?" the woman said turning and then looking at the faces that stood around and seeing that none of them would be a help.

"Here" the woman said before showing Clark a computer and telling him how to use the large database that was housed on it, to find the dress that Mr. Luthor was speaking of. 'Junior Assistant, then' the woman thought before going back to what she was doing. She figured if the man failed that was fine by her since then she could say that she hadn't part of the search process, it would probably get her in some hot water but it would keep her a job. Two hours later had Clark staring at a computer monitor with a total of 56 black dresses that had come out in the last year.

"It's a black dress" Clark said before scrolling through the list again and groaning, it was just too hard for him to figure out.

"Maybe if I narrow the search again" Clark said before typing in a shorter date range and only coming back with one ten results. Clark looked at each one and tried to picture if he had seen the dress in one of the magazines that his cousin and Lana left at his apartment when they were trying to give him hints on what they wanted for a birthday or Christmas.

"I think that" Clark said looking at the screen and trying to see if he could see his cousin or Lana in the dress. The dress was an understated dress, with spaghetti straps that were removal-able and a ruffle at the bottom of skirt. Clark thought that it looked like a great black dress, and could only hope that it was the one that Mr. Luthor was talking about in his message, he was tempted to call the man and ask him what he was talking about but with the look that Chloe gave him and decided that might not be the best of ideas.

"So" the woman from earlier said coming over to see that Clark had a dress pulled up that no one on the whole floor liked.

"You have that dress" Clark said pointing to the screen.

"We do" she said slowly, she wasn't really sure on what to do. Should she help him or not? She decided on not since she didn't have the time that it would require to explain to him that the dress he picked out was not a dress that she could see Mr. Luthor asking about. It was from one of those cutesy shops in downtown Metropolis, a place that she couldn't see Mr. Luthor stepping into if you paid him to do so.

"Can I get that along with a manikin?" Clark asked before the woman was waving over someone else to help him out. By the time that Clark had gotten the manikin and the dress, pretty much the whole building had left for day. Clark was soon in Mr. Luthor's office after a quick ride up the elevator to the twentieth floor with manikin and dress all packed on a cart. Clark fought for a good twenty minutes before he figured out how to get the manikin to stand by its self and then fought to put the dress on said manikin while not blushing as he touched it in the most inappropriate places. Once the dress was on the manikin, Clark decided to leave a note that told Mr. Luthor that he had the wrong number and that he was not the 'Junior Assistant' or whatever it was that he thought he was. Unfortunately Clark began to worry that his note might not be the greatest idea and instead left a note that basically said, 'here's the dress you requested' and that was it. No need to sign his name just in case the man came looking for him. Clark arrived home worried that the dress wasn't the correct one, but then forgot all about it when he heard the standard message that Laurent left on his answering machine. 'When was he going to get the clue?' Clark thought again before he made himself something eat and then playing his video games trying hard not to think about the dress that was now on the manikin in Lex Luthor's office at _Julian_.  
>The next morning had Clark biting his finger nails as he made his way to his desk in the basement, hoping that he still had a job.<p>

"Clark" Chloe said stunned that Clark had made it to the basement before one of the vultures of HR or Lex's assistant swooped him up.

"Chloe" Clark greeted the blonde before giving her a funny look. Had something gone on while he was gone?

"You're here"

"I am" Clark said now a bit worried and confused on what was going on.

"Kitty Kowalski, Mr. Luthor's assistant is looking for you"

"Uh" Clark said not really knowing what to say, he didn't think that he had done that bad of a job picking out a dress but then again his cousin and Lana had commented enough to the fact that he had no fashion skills at all.

"Go, go" Chloe said before she got a gleam in her eyes, she was *not* going to give up her translator because Clark had taken the time to figure out what the hell Lex Luthor was talking about when he left his message yesterday. Clark gave Chloe a look before making his way to his cube and then getting on his computer so that he could finish the article he had been working on before he had gotten the message and paper work from Chloe and Lex. By lunch time Clark was glad to be stepping away from his desk, so he totally forgot all about the cell phone that sat on his desk; that was now ringing while the rest of the office watched the thing go off. They were *not* going to answer that, they had seen Clark leave and not come back for the rest of the day so they weren't going to be the one to tell whoever it was that Clark wasn't there and to leave a message. Clark arrived back from lunch to see that the cell phone was blinking yet again.

"What now" Clark said knowing that it was Lex Luthor leaving another message.

"Carlos…Carl, I am a bit disappointed that you do not answer your phone when I call. We shall have to speak about that when I arrive back to the office on Monday. Also I want to see the Wang dresses in my office when I arrive" Lex Luthor said before hanging up the phone.

"WTF?" Clark said before shaking his head, he was not going to go back to the eighth floor and to those, those vultures that ran the penderie.

"Clark" Chloe said a bit concerned when she saw the cell phone pressed to his ear. It seemed that there was now another person that knew the number to the cell phone and was now using it and Clark as if they were his personal assistant.

"Mr. Luthor called again"

"I figured as much" Chloe said grim, she would have to make a trip up to HR to see what in the hell was going on. A screw up like this would be getting someone fired, maybe she should have told Clark to not even worry about it since that would alert the HR people that they had screwed up.

"Something about Wang dresses, what are those?" Clark asked before Chloe was sighing, Clark was just too Boy Scouty for his own good. Even now, he was trying to fulfill Lex Luthor's needs and he didn't even have the job of being 'Junior Assistant' as the person that was no doubt sitting up on the 20th floor did.

"It's a person, not a dress"

"Oh" Clark said before blushing, he should have known that since Kara and Lana went on about fashion makers and what they had out.

"Don't worry about it" Chloe said this time, she couldn't afford for Clark to be up in the penderie every time that Lex Luthor called about something. She would have to get this straighten out, but she could tell that it wouldn't be today, no she could pretty much see that Clark was going to follow through on this request as well.

"To the penderie?" Chloe asked before she saw Clark nod his head.

"Just don't stay too late" Chloe warned before Clark made his way back up to the 8th floor to where the penderie was housed.

"Back again I see" the woman from yesterday said as she saw Clark make his way back onto the floor.

"Yeah" Clark said before going over to the computer and typing in the word 'Wang' and seeing what sort of results he got.

"Wedding dresses?" Clark said stunned that Lex Luthor was worried about wedding dresses, it was no wonder that he didn't know that Wang was a who and not a what. Kara and Lana were firmly in the life of single women, and the only time that they spoke about weddings and marriage was when a star was getting married.

"But which ones" Clark mumbled before he was narrowing down the search by date and color, hoping he was going to get the right dresses. As Clark searched through the sea of wedding dresses his mind went back to the message, this time Lex Luthor had left some name, or at least Clark thought it was the name of the person he was calling. Clark was neither a Carlos nor a Carl, so he was a bit uncertain on what was really going on.

"Wedding dresses" the woman from earlier said surprised that Mr. Luthor was already working on the Wedding Edition of _Julian_ that was due out at a minimum of six months from now.

"Yeah" Clark said before he continued to look at page after page of wedding dresses in every shade of white and cream that there was. Clark had to say that he was particularly fond of the dresses that didn't come in the standard wedding white or cream, there was one dress that was in purple that Clark just thought would be perfect to include in the small collection he was putting together for Mr. Luthor.

"Need any help" the woman asked now a bit worried that maybe Mr. Luthor was sending him down to see how well the people on the floor worked with others not from the floor.

"Uh, no I think I'm good" Clark said before writing down another sequence number that the system had for each and every item in the penderie.

"If you need anything" the woman said before eyeing Clark and then leaving to go off in search of someone so that she could figure out what the hell was going on. It was three hours later that Clark finally had a list of ten wedding dresses made by Vera Wang that he wanted pulled.

"Uh" Clark said to a passing girl that looked like she was about twelve. The girl rolled her eyes before continuing on, Clark stood there for a good ten minutes trying to get someone to help him before he gave up. It couldn't be that hard to pull the dresses right? I mean they had a number and there must be a system in place, so he figured he could pull the dresses with little to no help. Clark checked one last time before diving into the penderie to find the dresses he had picked out. He was so not doing this again, ever. Clark made his way down the main aisle way, with a cart in front of him; looking at the numbers that were posted at the end of each of the large rack like pieces of furniture.

"Three, oh, eight" Clark said looking down at the paper in his hand and then to the numbers, soon finding the right aisle way and then looking at each dress and the numbered tag that was on it.

"Three, oh, eight; dot two, five" Clark said looking at each tag and then finding the dress in question in between two dresses that Clark hadn't seen in his search. Clark grabbed the clear garment bag the dress was in and placed it on the cart before going off in search of the next dress. It took Clark a total of two hours to find the ten dresses and he wasn't sure on how that was possible. There was a numbering system and it should have made perfect sense to put all of the Wang dresses together in the sequence but it seemed someone had other ideas. It seemed, at least to Clark, that there was no rhyme or reason as to where a dress may or may not be in the penderie, you could have a wedding dress right next to some dress that looked like it was for a night on the town.

"There you are!" Met Clark's ears as he surfaced from the penderie's racks with the ten dresses that he had chosen to leave in Mr. Luthor's office.

"You pulled…..you pulled!" The woman who was standing in front of Clark said, she couldn't believe that he had enough gall to just go in there and start pulling things down.

"Well I asked for help" Clark explained before the woman was glaring at him.

"That is still no reason"

"I asked and no one wanted to help me, so you tell Mr. Luthor the reason why these dresses aren't in his office come Monday morning" Clark said tired of this woman and her workers treating him like he was a lesser person. That seemed to have slowed the woman down, for she paled and then began to grab the cart that Clark had his selection of dresses on.

"I'm fine" Clark said taking the cart back and then making his way out of the penderie and the 8th floor, he still had to make sure that the dresses were set up with manikins, but Clark had a funny feeling that the woman he had just left would somehow make her way up to Mr. Luthor's office and ruin everything that he would set up just to spite him, she seemed like that type of person. So it was while Clark rode the elevator down instead of up that he pulled out the cell phone he was beginning to hate and called Chloe.

"Sullivan" Chloe answered on the second ring, which had Clark laughing at the way she answered the phone.

"Chloe, it's Clark"

"Oh, hello Clark" Chloe said her voice much warmer than it had been before.

"I was wondering if I could sort of hold some things in the office until Monday" Clark said before he heard some noises on the other side of the phone, that made him think that he may have been interrupting something for Chloe.

"That's fine, are they the Wang dresses?"

"Yeah and the lady from the penderie strikes me as the type of person to go and destroy"

"Oh she is a right bitch" Chloe agreed before telling Clark to do what he needed and that she would get the whole cell phone thing straightened out come Monday morning.

"Have fun" Clark said before laughing and then hanging up the phone, he wasn't a complete loser that he didn't know when someone was on a date. Maybe she was with that guy from the marketing department that had taken a liking to her, even he saw that one. It was at that same time that Clark hung up with Chloe that the doors to the elevator opened to the basement level of the building, and Clark was wheeling off the cart towards the very large metal door that looked as if it belonged in a safe. That had been part of the reason on why the translation department was in the basement to begin with, Mr. Luthor was paranoid that _Julian_ would be leaked to the masses if the translation department wasn't sealed up as if it was Fort Knox, and that was something that Mr. Luthor wasn't going to allow. So the translation department had been stuck in the basement with all sorts of security measures in place so that no one would be getting anything from the department that shouldn't be. Clark scanned his badge and then his thumb print and then finally his eye before he was allowed into the office that housed all of the cubes for the translators of the department. Clark still shook his head with the amount of security that their department had, he was always very grateful to Chloe for allowing them only to do the badge scan and thumb print before they began work every day. He didn't think he would be able to handle doing all three things each and every time he left the floor for something. Clark wheeled the cart over to his cube and then unlocked the doors, he had been amazed on when Chloe handed over a key to the door to the cube but now he was thanking whoever bought these to decide to add locks to the doors.

"There now to get the manikins" Clark said before making his way back up to the 8th floor to get the required manikins, so that come Sunday night he wouldn't be locked out of the penderie with no way to get manikins. It seemed that Clark was lucky since the woman from before was still there looking very unhappy about Clark's treatment of her earlier.

"What do you want now?" She grouched out before glaring at Clark as if that would make him go away.

"I'm going to need some manikins" Clark said before the woman thrust a large bin with wheels over to him and then pointed to where many manikins where standing looking like fashion models in their poses.

"Get them yourself" the woman said before she continued to glare at Clark, she shouldn't have to put up with this, this junior assistant to Mr. Luthor but she knew better than to rock the boat with the assistant. No she would be talking to Mr. Luthor come Monday morning about the boy and then she would see him being escorted out of the building for not bowing to her as he should have been doing. 'Who did he think he was, walking into the penderie stacks and acting as if he owned the place?' The woman thought to herself as she watch Clark load up the bin with manikins.

"Okay" Clark said before grabbing some manikins in poses that he could deal with and putting them in the large bin he had before getting enough for the dresses he had picked out. Once done Clark made his way back down to his cube to put the manikins in there was well. When he arrived back down there he noticed that the manikins weren't going to fit with their bin in his cube along with the dresses. Clark figured that the manikins could hang out, outside his cube while the dresses would be locked up in his cube. By the time that Clark got home he was so exhausted that he fell right asleep even in his work clothes. For the rest of the weekend Clark worried about if the dresses he picked out where okay and if they weren't if he would have a job come Monday afternoon. Sunday night had Clark making his way back to the _Julian_ building and to his desk to set up the dresses for Mr. Luthor for Monday morning, since Clark was pretty sure that Mr. Luthor wanted to see the dresses the moment he stepped foot into his office. Clark of course jumped through the hoops to get to his desk and then unlocked the door and took the manikins in their bins and the dresses on their cart up to the 20th floor, he could only hope that the floor wasn't locked down like his was. It seemed that once he arrived to the floor the elevator requested that he scan his badge which he did and received no problems afterwards to being let onto the floor. This worried Clark, what had HR done to him? Clark was soon setting up the ten manikins with their various poses and then placing each wedding dress on the manikin and then looking at the line up and seeing if one would need to be moved or not. Once Clark completed the task he took both the cart and the bin and made his way back to his desk. He didn't think the crazy lady from the penderie would be able to get on the floor, and it was nearing the ten o'clock hour anyway so he didn't think she would be coming in now. That night Clark dreamed of wedding dresses and Mr. Luthor screaming at him about getting the wrong dress, now Clark had never met Mr. Lex Luthor but he figured the man was scary and not someone to cross so his mind played with him while he slept. He didn't know that in just a couple of days he would be meeting the man himself. Clark woke the next morning without his alarm waking him up; he wanted to be to work as early as possible to see if he would be able to hide out in his cube waiting for the doom call from HR.

"Clark" Chloe said greeting him at the local thumb scan that sat at the entrance of the department.

"Hey Chloe" Clark said before shuffling his way over to his cube to see the cart and bin still sitting there.

"I need…." Clark said pointing to the cart and bin that sat outside his cube.

"Go ahead" Chloe said waving him away, she had some calls to make anyway and they should probably be done with Clark away from his desk.

"Thanks" Clark said before jogging and grabbing the cart and bin and then making his way to the 8th floor where the penderie was with the fire breathing dragon that ran the place. Clark arrived to the floor and had the cart and bin snatched from his hands.

"Go" the woman said before pushing Clark back on the elevator, she had waited until Clark left on Friday to go up to the 20th floor to see what the *boy* had done only to be not allowed entry, which meant she couldn't see what he had picked out and if it was even set up. Clark stood back on the elevator stunned, seemed someone wasn't in a good humor and Clark had learned early on that, that could always be a very bad thing when dealing with Mr. Luthor and _Julian_ Magazine.

"That was quick" One of Clark's co-workers said as he arrived back to the floor.

"The dragon didn't want me back on the floor" Clark joked before going over to his cube and unlocking it and then signing into his computer. He never heard Chloe yelling at HR about their screw-up with the cell phones and he never heard Chloe threaten the HR department that if they didn't fix the issue and fix it today for she was not going to lose her Arabic translator to being a junior assistant to Lex Luthor's assistant Kitty Kowalski, the woman got away with too much as it was. Hence why they needed a freaking junior assistant in the first place, but Chloe wasn't about to piss off one of Kitty's friends in HR that was for sure. Instead she made it clear that *her* employee Clark Kent was not the junior assistant that Kitty hired, he was an *Arabic translator*. For the rest of the morning Chloe was on the phone fighting with HR about the mix-up and Clark sat at his cube translating forgetting for the moment about the wedding dresses sitting up on the 20th floor.

"Can you give me your phone" Chloe said by way of greeting Clark in his cube, she had gotten tired of fighting with HR about the mix-up so she was going to do what she should have done in the first place and that was fight with Kitty Kowalski about it. The phone was going to go into her hands and Chloe was then going to go out and get Clark his own damn phone on her own. How could HR be so helpless and stupid?

"Here" Clark said before looking up and seeing Chloe with her battle face on, he had seen it once before and it was when she had gone to a meeting with Mr. Luthor. The meeting had gone well, but Clark knew better than to question the blonde when that face was on.

"I'll be back" Chloe said marching out of the department office in her stiletto heels and business suit, she was the only one in the department that was fashion forward but being a director sort of made you have to. Mr. Lex Luthor did not take kindly to poorly dressed people in his presence, and so she had to revamp her whole wardrobe. The ride to the 20th floor was quick since it seemed that the elevator could tell that Chloe was in a hurry and not happy.

"Can I help you?" Kitty Kowalski said, her mocha color skin set off by the green eye shadow that coordinated with her outfit for the day.

"Here" Chloe said passing over the cell phone to Kitty, glaring at the woman.

"A cell phone" Kitty said looking at the phone and then at Chloe.

"You seemed to have mix-up the HR department about your junior assistant" Chloe explained gritting her teeth; she was really trying to not scream at the woman.

"Excuse me" Kitty said clearly confused on what Chloe was talking about.

"Your junior assistant" Chloe said hoping the woman would supply her with a name so that she could then bitch the HR department with a bit more information.

"Yes, Clay Montrose" Kitty supplied to Chloe which made the woman grin, oh now she had a name!

"Well for some reason it seems that my employee has been deemed *your* junior assistant"

"But Clay won't be starting for another week" Kitty said now clacking away on her computer and looking through stacks of papers. This was why she needed help, it seemed that Lex Luthor was becoming even more demanding as _Julian_ became more popular and it was something that she just couldn't handle.

"Well it seems that Mr. Luthor didn't get that memo" Chloe said before she could hear the man in question speaking in his office, probably to himself since she hadn't seen anyone in there when she arrived.

"Not a choice I would have picked right off, but excellent" Chloe heard Mr. Luthor mutter before he continued on speaking.

"Purple, odd but good"

"And this one…..pure genius" Lex Luthor said before he was buzzing for Kitty.

"Mr. Luthor" Kitty said totally and completely at the end of her rope, she hadn't realized that HR had screwed-up and royally until Chloe came stomping in. It seemed that Mr. Luthor had been given another employees cell phone number thinking that he was to be the junior assistant and it seemed the guy was good enough to help them until Chloe decided enough was enough.

"Set up a meeting with Casey, Carlton…whatever this new junior assistant's name is for tomorrow"

"Yes sir" Kitty said before she noticed Chloe glaring at her.

"Oh no you don't"

"You want to tell Mr. Luthor that?" Kitty said knowing she had Chloe backed into a corner, maybe if they were lucky they could steal the guy away and then she would be able to go back to being able to actually get work done. Chloe gritted her teeth; there was nothing she could do, so instead she stomped off the floor making sure to leave the cell phone at Kitty's desk. The woman could answer the phone the next time that Mr. Luthor decided to call and request something of Clark. Hell he couldn't even figure out what his name was, had they gone through that many assistants up there? Chloe arrived back to the department to see that Clark was on the phone, well wasn't Kitty moving fast?

"Hello" Clark answered the phone, he was so glad to not have to answer it the way he did at the hospital, although now that he was thinking about it, it might be a good idea just in case to say something about _Julian_ and this being the translation department just in case. You never knew when the owner, CEO or some other muckity muck would call to see if things were going as stated in the rules and regulations they had been given when they began.

"Mr. Kent" Clark heard with a bit of shuffling of papers on the other end of the phone.

"Yes" Clark said not really sure who it was that was calling him at work no less.

"This is Kitty Kowalski, and I am Mr. Luthor's assistant" here Clark jumped, before looking around for Chloe. He had thought she had gotten the whole cell phone mix-up cleared up and he wasn't certain on if the woman was calling him about the dresses in Mr. Luthor's office.

"Oh, hello" Clark said trying to sound like it wasn't a huge surprise that Mr. Luthor's assistant was calling him.

"Mr. Luthor would like to set up a time to meet with you" the woman said over the phone before she was rustling papers again.

"Uh" Clark said not really sure on what to say to the woman.

"He has a ten, thirty tomorrow morning; would that work?"

"Sure" Clark said figuring that if he didn't agree to the appointment that it would be weeks before he saw the man and that meant weeks of worrying something that Clark didn't like to do.

"Excellent" the woman said before hanging up the phone.

"I hope she's a bit nicer to other people" Clark said to the dead phone, it was then that Chloe made her way over to Clark's desk to see how he was doing.

"Clark"

"Hi Chloe" Clark said before giving her a worried look.

"What?" Chloe said instantly worried that something had gone wrong and Clark was still receiving calls from Lex Luthor but on the LAN line instead, since she had given the cell phone to Kitty just a bit ago.

"Mr. Luthor's assistant called"

"Oh" Chloe said surprised that the woman had called Clark so quickly; then again Clark had yet to meet with Mr. Luthor since starting so maybe she was calling about that. Chloe could hope couldn't she?

"She set up an appointment with me and Mr. Luthor; tomorrow at ten-thirty" Clark said worried, he so didn't want to go to the meeting but he knew better than to even try and get out of it. Maybe it would be something simple, like a meet and greet that the HR department said you had with the man.

"Doesn't sound painful" Chloe joked knowing that Clark would worry until the meeting tomorrow about the purpose behind it, which she hoped was just the standard meet and greet Mr. Luthor did with all new employees and not the meeting for Mr. Luthor to meet Clark as the latest junior assistant. Clark nodded his head at Chloe's words and then set back to work on his translation of one of the final articles for the latest edition of_ Julian_ Magazine in Arabic. For the rest of the day Clark tried to keep himself busy, that way he wouldn't think about the upcoming meeting with Lex Luthor. He had a funny feeling that this meeting wasn't going to be as painless as Chloe had joked about it being.


	6. One Meeting you don't want to miss

The next morning had Clark picking out an outfit that he hoped would pass inspection from Mr. Lex Luthor, owner and editor of _Julian_ Magazine but he knew it was a futile endeavor since all of his clothing had been said to be either Goodwill finds or farm wear, both that were true. His parents at the time hadn't had a lot of money to spend on getting him clothes to wear while he was in high school, and since it was generally hard to find clothing his size when he had moved to Metropolis for college the clothes had come with him, and they now resided in his closet. Clark picked out the most formal shirt and pants he could before getting ready for the day, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that something bad was going to happen in the meeting. He could just feel it, he didn't know how and why but he knew. Once Clark arrived to work he hid out in his cube as much as possible, hoping that Mr. Luthor's assistant would call and cancel the appointment, it was not to be since at 10:28 Clark started to make his way to the elevators that would take him up to the 20th floor, a place he wanted to avoid as much as possible at the present moment in time.

Bing! The elevator sounded as Clark arrived to the 20th floor, which was all sleek furniture that looked to be from some catalogue that was from Europe. Clark had seen the furniture before since he had been up there a few times already, but that had been when no one was there now there sat a woman with long flowing black hair, mocha colored skin and a pair of glasses that looked to be more for show than for actual work; at a glass desk with the standard white Apple computer sitting on the desk.

"Can I help you?" The woman asked looking up from her computer and gaping at the Greek God dressed in the worst outfit she had seen on a man ever.

"Uh, I'm Clark Kent" Clark said standing in front of the desk where Kitty still sat gaping at Clark.

"You're Clark Kent?"

"Uh, yes" Clark said uncertain on what was going on, he was on time right? Clark thought as he looked at his watch to see that it said it was 10:30 on the dot now.

"Uh, let me let Mr. Luthor know you are here" Kitty said before putting on a headset and pushing a button on the phone that looked to be a piece of artwork.

"Mr. Luthor your ten-thirty is here" Kitty said, she knew if she said the man's name to Mr. Luthor that it would be no good. The man was horrible with names it seemed, at least when it came to the staff that worked closely with him. She herself had been Harley to Harriet before Mr. Luthor decided to keep her and suddenly her name became Kitty, as she was named.

"Send them in" Kitty heard through the headset and then she set Clark to make his way into Mr. Luthor's office. The man was going to eat the boy man alive, he looked like a Greek God but had the fashion style of a homeless person, but then again she had seen homeless people look better than that.

"Casey" Lex Luthor greeted Clark sticking out a hand with an easy grin on his face.

"It's Clark" Clark corrected before sticking out his hand and shaking the man's hand, he looked very familiar; Clark just couldn't place where he had seen the man before.

"Have a seat" Lex Luthor said before taking a seat himself and it was then that Clark figured out where he had seen the man before. It was the jerk from the elevator! 'Full my ass' Clark thought trying hard to bite his tongue on saying something to the man about his elevator usage and the longer that Clark looked at the man he realized that he had seen him at the restaurant when he had gone with Laurent. This is who Laurent had been drooling over at the restaurant!

"You jerk!" Clark blurted out before blushing, he soooo hadn't meant to say that it was just with the thoughts running through his head he couldn't help it.

"Excuse me" Lex Luthor said his face taking on that of cool business professional. Clark couldn't help himself then, it was as if once the words came out that there was no stopping them.

"You pushed me off an elevator, 'it's full' full my behind!" Clark said before he stood up and began to sort of pace the room, all the while Lex Luthor watched on a bit amused. No one had called him on his pushing out of people on an elevator but it seemed that his newest junior assistant had and looked as if he wasn't going to stop there. He could sort of remember the day that Clark was talking about; he had seen the guy and had decided then and there to take the elevator so that he wouldn't be next to him on his ride to wherever it was he was going.

"And then…then you start ogling by ex-boyfriend at a restaurant" Lex Luthor smirked at that, he remembered that night when he had seen model Laurent Denalla sitting with some guy that looked as if he was a charity case and now that he was thinking about it, it was the same guy from the elevator episode which was now standing in front of him ranting at him, as if he wasn't Lex Luthor and the owner and editor of _Julian_ Magazine and LexCorp CEO.

"Ex-boyfriend" this surprised Lex, he hadn't thought that a guy like this would be going out with males; no he looked as if he was homegrown from a farm and bred to love breasts.

"Laurent Denalla" Clark stated before glaring at Mr. Luthor, not at all happy with the man.

"Ah, yes" Lex Luthor said with a smirk on his face, he was thoroughly enjoying this tete-a-tete with his latest junior assistant. Most of them were too busy ogling him and his genius to get anything he said done but this one, oh this one was a keeper.

"As if the three super models you had with you weren't enough" Clark continued to rant as if not even noticing that Mr. Luthor was still in the room with him.

"Hmmm" Mr. Luthor said thoroughly amused now, oh he would keep this one. Not only did he have the body and face of a Greek God but he also seemed to be not afraid of him, which was always a very good thing. Kitty was still learning to take a stand on things, and he didn't need someone know-towing to him at this moment in time. Hell the guy could even manage to do the job that he requested of him, even though he dressed as if he picked his clothing out of a garbage can.

"Caleb" Mr. Luthor started to say before he was cut off by Clark.

"My name is Clark"

"Yes well" Mr. Luthor said before he began speaking as if Clark hadn't corrected.

"I wanted to take the time to meet with you and let you know that you are doing an amazing job" Clark could only gape at the man, was he serious about this?

"Thank you" Clark said stunned, Lex Luthor was actually complementing him on his job; now to just figure out which one that was.

"I must say I was a bit surprised by some of the choices that you pulled for the Wang line" Clark's face fell at this, this was about the stupid wedding dresses that he had pulled and put up and not his job as translator?

"I thought the purple was pretty genius" Mr. Luthor said figuring that Clark would preen under his words instead it seemed that the younger man curled in on himself.

"I liked it" Clark said, this was not what he wanted to be doing right now. Maybe staying at the hospital was for the best, because Clark had the sinking feeling that the cell phone he had given Chloe would pop up at his desk now and there was nothing he could to fight about it.

"Is there a problem" Mr. Luthor said noticing that something was wrong with Clark.

"No"

"Cal"

"It's Clark" Clark said before shaking his head, was it like a test? Try and see if the person Mr. Luthor was dealing with would punch him if he couldn't figure out your name?

"Yes, whatever" Mr. Luthor said before waving his hand, it seemed this move alerted Kitty to something for she was soon clicking into the room on her stilettos.

"Mr. Luthor"

"Nothing, nothing" Mr. Luthor said before shooing Kitty out of the room, she eyed Clark for a moment before going to her desk and making a call to HR. That was the longest *ANY*one had ever been in Mr. Luthor's office with the man present.

"Are you sure there is no problem?"

"Yes" Clark said knowing that even bringing up the fact that he worked in another department was moot at this point. The man saw him as the junior assistant and that was what he was going to become, goodbye Arabic translating!

"I'm meeting with Badgley Mischka tomorrow" Lex Luthor said looking at Clark, he was pretty sure that him being there would be a good thing. He had a fresh set of eyes, something that he had been looking for in an assistant. Kitty was going good pushing paperwork; she had proven that when he had gifted her the task of finding a dress he had seen, much like he had done with the younger man sitting across from him. Kitty fell flat on her face at the request while this young man seemed to relish the challenge and actually fulfill his request correctly. Clark looked at Mr. Luthor with a blank look on his face, was he supposed to care about the name he had just thrown out there?

"Their wedding collection is due to be released and I need to see if they have anything worthy for _Julian_'s Wedding edition" Lex Luthor explained to Clark, he still got a lost look from the younger man.

"I need you there"

"Oh, well" Clark said now understanding where Mr. Luthor was going with his thoughts.

"Well what?"

"I'm sort of busy"

"Busy?" Mr. Luthor asked stunned, this guy was busy? Doing what? He was *his* junior assistant!

"Yeah, translating" Clark said figuring this was the only way he was going to get out the fact that he was not in fact the junior assistant that Mr. Luthor thought him to be.

"Translating?"

"The magazine into Arabic"

"You're a translator?" Lex Luthor asked skeptical, guys like this didn't have jobs like that.

"Yes, Chloe Sullivan is my director. We can call her if you like" Clark said thinking that this would get him out of going to whatever the hell the name of the designer or designers were with this man. He was getting a serious headache being so close to the pompous man.

"You're the Arabic translator that Ms. Sullivan hired?"

"Yes" Clark said he could see that Mr. Luthor was very unhappy.

"Hmm" Mr. Luthor said before picking up the phone and dialing a number that Clark couldn't see.

"Ms. Sullivan"

"I'm here with Clayton"

"It's Clark" Clark corrected automatically, before shutting up at the glare he got.

"The newest addition to your group of translator he says"

"Arabic, he told me"

"No"

"Hmmm"

"No, sorry" Mr. Luthor said ending the conversation he was having with Chloe about him.

"The meeting is at eleven, tomorrow"

"Uh"

"Eleven, tomorrow" Mr. Luthor said before standing and making a show for Clark to leave the office. Clark looked back a couple of times before scuttling his way out of the office and then back down to his cube in the basement.

"Clark!" Chloe shouted once she saw him make his way to his cube, most of the office stopped at the shout. Chloe had been on a rampage since she got off the phone only minutes before.

"Mr. Luthor…." Clark didn't even know what to say, there was nothing he could say. Hell he had almost cursed at the man, and yet here he was back at his desk and still with a job.

"I spoke with him" Chloe said before grimacing, oh yeah she talked to the man alright and he had basically told her in very few words, as was his way, that Clark was his not hers.

"I have a feeling I won't be doing this anymore" Clark said waving a hand over his desk and the stack of articles that were waiting for his translating.

"Pretty much"

"But"

"There's only one way out of this Clark and that is to quit _Julian_, which I don't think you want to do"

"No, not really"

"Well then, I guess we make a game plan of how to get your doing that job and this one. I can't lose you"

"Uh" Clark was speechless, he didn't think that Chloe would fight for him; but then again she didn't strike him as the type of person to just let something go because someone else said to.

"I'll get this taken care of, you do that and then I might have to have a chat with Mr. Luthor myself" Chloe said setting her jaw and then stomping into her office to do battle with HR about Clark.

"Clark can you come here" Chloe called from her office a few hours later, which had Clark trying to translate something but failing. The thought of being with Lex Luthor for an unknown amount of time tomorrow was making him sick; it was not something he was going to enjoy unlike most of the world that would have given their souls for this opportunity.

"You wanted to see" Clark said before Chloe pointed to a chair for Clark to sit in.

"I spoke with HR, and I spoke with Mr. Luthor. I explained the situation we are in and it seems that Mr. Luthor is willing to allow you to work part-time in this department" Chloe was not happy with the words she just spoke and Clark could see that.

"But what about….."

"Yes, I spoke about the amount of time it takes to translate and Mr. Luthor's philosophy is basically getting done by any means necessary"

"But that would mean I would have to work late and work weekends and work….."

"Yeah, there isn't much else I can do here. I fought with the man for nearly twenty minutes, but all I got was that you were *his* and that was the end of the story"

"I can't stand the man!" Clark shouted, maybe quitting was a good idea but then again the Luthor name had plenty of sway in Metropolis so he would probably only end up back at _Julian_.

"Well at this point I can't either" Chloe agreed before giving Clark a sad look, she would be sad to see him go. He seemed to be the only person in her department that she could relate to, most of the employees stuck to their cubes and heading out when it was quitting time.

"I have no suggestions, but this; do what you can and make sure they pay you for it"

"You're right" Clark said knowing that Chloe was right, but damn if he didn't have a busy enough schedule in the next couple of weeks. His parents had decided to rent out a stall/booth at the Metropolis Farmers Market to test the waters on how their organic produce would be received in the large town, along with the fact that he had a stack of papers at his house from the hospital that they wanted him to translate in the next couple of weeks as well. He felt like the family from the show 'In Living Color' when they said they had like twenty jobs, he was currently at the total of three not including helping out his parents. Clark sat for a moment before standing up and making his way back to his desk, there was still work to be done and Mr. Luthor would just have to fit over the fact that he wasn't up there on the 20th floor with him for the time being.

"Maybe if Mr. Luthor decides he wants another junior assistant, I can get you back down here" Chloe said before watching Clark back as he left the office. She was not happy but there was nothing she could do. Clark arrived to his cube to see Kitty, Mr. Luthor's assistant standing near his cube.

"Mr. Kent" Kitty said a frown on her face, she was not at all happy with this man to be taking her coveted spot of being Mr. Luthor's assistant. Junior he may be but Kitty could tell that he had the admiration of Mr. Luthor and that was something that she just was unhappy to see. It was supposed to be her going with Mr. Luthor to look over fashion collections, not some loser from the nerd herd of translators.

"Uh, Kitty" Clark said looking at the woman and wondering what she was here for, okay so he knew but he was going to stay in the river of denial for as long as possible.

"That's Ms. Kowalski to you" Kitty said before sneering at Clark, clearly unimpressed with him and the reason on why she was down in the basement instead on the 20th floor with Mr. Luthor.

"Here you go" Kitty said passing the phone over to Clark and giving him an evil grin. Clark could already tell that the woman standing before him was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Great, thanks" Clark said taking the phone out of Kitty's grip and then waiting for the woman to leave. Kitty left without saying another word, Clark watched her as she made her way back out of the office and to the main elevators that would allow her to return to her desk on the 20th floor.

"Clark" Chloe said once she saw the retreating back of Kitty.

"Cell phone" Clark said holding up the phone in question for Chloe to see.

"I pity you" Chloe said knowing that nothing good would come from the cell phone now in Clark's possession again.

"I pity me" Clark said before he sat at his desk and sighed, this was so not his idea of a better job. No this was clearly as far from that idea as he could get. Chloe laughed before making her way back to her office, there was nothing she could really say that would make Clark feel better, so she didn't even try. Not twenty minutes after Clark had the cell phone was it ringing, with Clark knowing that Mr. Luthor was on the other end of the phone.

"Why me?" Clark questioned the ringing phone of course not receiving any sort of response. The phone continued to ring while Clark eyed it as if it was the Devil himself, and at this point in time Clark thought that the man on the other end was possibly the Devil or maybe even his son. Did the Devil reproduce? Clark had to end the thought because the phone had become silent but only for a moment for it began to ring again. This time Clark figured he had better answer or the stupid thing would continue to ring, Mr. Luthor took him as the type of person that would call until you picked up.

"Hello"

"Clarence"

"It's Clark" Clark corrected knowing that Mr. Luthor wasn't even listening to him since he had just continued to talk over Clark.

"Was there a reason you didn't answer your phone the first time?"

"It's the company's phone and I was busy" Clark lied, he wasn't going to tell the man that he had been staring at it wondering if the Devil could have kids or had them and if the man he was speaking with was possibly one of those children.

"Semantics" Mr. Luthor said before he began rattling to Clark about some other fashion designer that he was to meet as well with him. Clark was very tempted to tell Mr. Luthor that Kitty Kowalski was more than up for the task, but he knew that the man wouldn't listen to that suggestion just like he didn't listen to Clark now.

"Excellent" Mr. Luthor said before hanging up the phone with a very confused Clark on the other end.

"Where did I go wrong?" Clark questioned before closing the phone and setting it on his desk before deciding that maybe a bit of translating would get his mind off of Mr. Luthor and how crazy the man really was. It was as it was nearing the five o'clock hour that Clark's cell phone went off again, this time Clark checked the caller ID and saw that it was the same number that had been calling, which meant that it was Mr. Luthor calling again.

"Hello" Clark said with a sigh, he so didn't want to be answering this phone. He could only assume it would be more work for him and he had plenty of that at the present moment in time.

"Cason" Mr. Luthor greeted Clark, who then proceeded to correct the man on his name.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said hoping that maybe the 'sir' would slow the man down. It didn't for the man was off and running about the meeting in the morning that he was to be at.

"I expect to see you at the viewing on time and I also want you to get as much information as you can on Jenny Lee" Mr. Luthor said before then hanging up the phone.

"He has to be kidding me" Clark mumbled before he wrote down the name and then decided that he was quite tired of being at work and that finding information on Jenny Lee would wait until the morning. Clark was assuming that the name was of yet another fashion designer but as to what they made he didn't know and at this point in time didn't care.

"Clark" Chloe said surprised to see Clark still in the office, she had figured that Clark had left the office on some errand that Mr. Luthor had called to make Clark do.

"I'm just leaving" Clark said with a weary sigh, he knew that he would probably end up being early tomorrow, just so that he didn't look like a complete fool in front of Mr. Luthor but hell if he didn't want this. He had been quite happy being an Arabic translator, but see where that got him? With an extra job he didn't need or want. Chloe looked at Clark's face and could tell that it would only be a matter of time before he broke, she could only hope that he would still be around after Mr. Luthor came down on him when he had either failed at something or just plain stopped being the man's whipping boy.

"Get some rest"

"Of course" Clark agreed before making his way out of the building and then to the parking garage to his car. Clark was lucky in that he never received a call from Mr. Luthor that night, no instead Laurent had decided to call and leave a message stating that he would be back in town by the end of the week and he really wanted to see Clark. Clark could only shake his head; did Laurent think that he was that desperate for sex? The sound of his home phone woke Clark out of wondering if Laurent had another agenda on wanting to see him or if he had found that most that wanted to go to bed with him were tops and not bottoms, and since Laurent was purely a top it made finding someone of Laurent's standards for a bottom hard.

"Hello" Clark answered figuring that the message on the answering machine was all that Laurent was going to leave until he arrived back in town.

"Clark" Martha Kent's voice came over the phone, putting Clark at ease a bit. It was a good thing his mother had called, because he wasn't really sure on what he should do now. In his heart, he wanted to quit and return to the hospital but he also loved the challenge that translating the magazine into Arabic provided to him.

"Hey mom" Clark greeted to his mother again.

"So how is work?"

"Oh I hate it" Clark said no reason to lie to his mother; he knew she would know if he was lying anyway. She was his mother after all and she always knew when he was not telling the truth about something.

"What's wrong?"

"Well long story, short I seemed to have been made the junior assistant to Mr. Luthor"

"How"

"Well the cell phone that Chloe, my director, gave me for emergencies she said; well the phone number was given to Mr. Luthor from HR. They thought that I was the newest junior assistant when in fact the guy doesn't start until next week. So I got a couple of calls from Mr. Luthor and not wanting to let the guy down, do the tasks and then next thing I know I am meeting with the man and have become his junior assistant" Clark said before sighing and taking a seat on his couch, he had just gotten up to get something to drink when the phone had rung.

"Oh honey"

"It's okay mom" Clark said trying to reassure not only his mother but himself as well that things would be okay in the end.

"Clark" Martha said knowing what Clark was doing and she was not going to have any of it.

"Really it's fine"

"Clark" Martha said before sighing, Clark could be so much like Jonathan that it sometimes amazed her even now.

"So have you and dad made any plans to come to Metropolis' Farmers Market?" Clark said changing the subject; he didn't want to talk about his job or jobs any longer.

"Well your father and I were thinking of coming up in the next couple of weeks"

"That sounds great" Clark said eager to see his parents again, he didn't go back to Smallville much since the last few times he had gone Lana had reamed him out but good for doing so. Clark had no idea on *why* the girl was so bitter about it but he knew that she was.

"Can you see what we need to do to rent a booth or whatever?" Martha said wondering if her distraction would work.

"Yeah and I'll call you with the details" Clark agreed before speaking with his mother for a bit longer and then hanging up with her. He did after all have a long day ahead of him and he figured that he would need all the sleep that he could get before doing battle with Mr. Lex Luthor about wedding wear. 


	7. Wedding Dresses and Opinions

The next morning Clark woke up and wanted to groan, he had set his alarm early so that he would have time to get the research material that Mr. Luthor had asked for, but why did he have to set his alarm for 4:45 AM?

"I am *not* doing this again" Clark told his empty bedroom, before making his way out of his warm bed and to his cold bathroom and even colder shower. Twenty minutes later had Clark walking out of his bathroom a bit more awake and ready to get dressed for the day.

"What to wear, what to wear?" Clark said before pulling out a button up shirt in white with a pair of black pants to go with. He figured it was the best he could do, given such short notice of the meeting that morning. By 6:30 AM, Clark was walking into the building, intent on doing his research before his meeting; at 10:30 AM Clark had found out all he could on Jenny Lee and what she was about. It seemed that the woman was fairly new to the wedding dress design game but had been received great reviewers from many a designer in the world of wedding dresses.

"Clark" Chloe said surprised to see Clark at his desk and not on the 20th floor as she figured she would see him the next time she did see him.

"Research" Clark said before taking notice of the time and figuring that being late was a huge no, no in Mr. Luthor's and probably being early was a good thing if there ever was a good thing with the bald man.

"Well you are cutting it a bit close" Chloe said noticing that the clock on the wall said that it was 10:45.

"He can wait" Clark joked before signing out of his computer and making his way to the elevators with his notes in hand. Mr. Luthor would just have to get over the fact that he didn't memorize some wedding dress designer's whole life, just to impress him. He had too much rattling in his brain already just to add more to it.

"Good luck" Chloe said watching as the elevators took Clark to meet his doom, Chloe was certain of it.

"You're late" Kitty said as Clark stepped off the elevator, she was not at all happy with the way that things were going. It was to be her meeting with Mr. Luthor and the two designers from Badgley Mischka, not some man that had no sort of fashion sense at all. The injustice of it all!

"I'm right on time" Clark said watching as his watch ticked right to the 11 o'clock spot.

"Chason" Mr. Luthor said swinging his office door open and shooing Clark in.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark corrected the bald man once again, he was almost certain at this point that the other man did this to see how long it would be before you exploded. Then again he had already done that once and it got him no closer to the man learning his name, but then again that was about Laurent and not his name. As Clark stepped into the office he noticed right away that there were a few models standing around in white bathrobes looking bored, while two men sat in chairs next to the glass desk that backed into the wall of glass, showing off the Metropolis skyline.

"Right" Mr. Luthor said before making his way back over to where the two men sat and then took a seat in his own chair, leaving Clark clueless as to what to do for a seat.

"Charles pull up a seat" Mr. Luthor said pointing to one of the empty visitor chairs that the man had in his office.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark corrected once again before grabbing a chair and dragging it over to where the three men sat now.

"So this is our latest collection" a man said with graying hair and glass, he looked to Mr. Luthor to see if was to begin the showing of the latest bridal gowns that they had created for this year's wedding season. They got a nod from Mr. Luthor and soon the first model was striding out in a white wedding dress that hugged the models body and then faired out at calf height and the train connecting to the twinkling straps that wrapped from the front of the dress to the back.

"This is called Bebe" a man with a serious tan and seriously white teeth said before waiting for the next model to come out. They had been through this with Mr. Luthor many times before since they also produced more than wedding dresses, but it seemed every time they did this with Mr. Luthor they were waiting for the man to tell them their whole collection was crap.

"This is called Brigitte" the older man spoke and then looked at Clark as if he was going to say something. Clark just watched as model after model came out in wedding dress after wedding dress. He had to admit that some he hated, like the one called Florence. It had way too many ruffles in his opinion but he said nothing waiting for some sort of cue from Mr. Luthor about if he was able to speak or not.

"I want to see Florence, Maria, Josephine and Viola again" Mr. Luthor said his face calmly neutral, not showing what he was thinking about when he asked to see those dresses again.

"Florence, Maria, Josephine and Viola" the man with the graying hair and glasses said to the models who still on those dress, their collection was small so the models only had one dress to model.

"Carlisle" Mr. Luthor said before pointing to the first dress and then titling his head a bit as if trying to see if in a better light.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said knowing that it was pointless to correct the man, but he still continued to do so. The two designers watched with an amazed looks on their faces, no one had ever gotten again with correcting Lex Luthor before but here was some assistant doing just that. What made him so special?

"What do you think of this dress?" Mr. Luthor asked Clark looking at the first dress which happened to be the dress that Clark was beginning to loath. It looked very much like something Lana would pick out if she was to ever get married, Clark shuttered to think what that wedding would look like; probably miles and miles of pink and miles and miles of stupid women giggling about how fairy tale the wedding was going to be.

"I'm not a huge fan of it" Clark said figuring he had nothing to lose at this point, he wasn't a fashion designer and he certainly wasn't a fashion magazine editor, no he was just an Arabic translator with the job from hell.

"Why"

"Too many…ruffles" Clark said before pointing to the bottom half of the dress, where layer upon layer of ruffles created the bottom half of the dress.

"Ruffles" Mr. Luthor said looking at the dress and then looking at the designers; both had frowns on their faces. They were not happy about something and Mr. Luthor could see that.

"And the rest of the dress?"

"The top is a bit too overdone for my tastes" here it seemed that one of the designers was *not* going to let Clark belittle their line.

"You can't even dress yourself!" The man shouted while standing up before glaring at his design partner having a silent conversation and then sitting back down clearly in a huff.

"I'm just saying is all" Clark squeaked, he figured that something like that was going to happen when Mr. Luthor asked about his thoughts on the dress.

"Mischka" Mr. Luthor said glaring at said man making him sink into his seat.

"And the other dresses?" Mr. Luthor asked Clark hoping that he would still get an honest opinion out of the man, even after the designer had blown up at him.

"I don't particularly like the fabric choice on that dress but the other two are amazing" Clark said figuring that he might as well say what he thought. He may be clueless when it came to his own clothes but he knew when he liked something and he was not a huge fan of the fabric that had been chosen for the dress they called Josephine.

"Hmm" Mr. Luthor said before looking at said dress and then looking back to the designers.

"Photos of the dresses" Mr. Luthor said before walking out of the office and making his way to another room, Clark followed along helpless not sure what to do.

"Clinton" Mr. Luthor called out making sure that Clark had followed him, which of course Clark had.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark corrected now automatically not even really paying attention to if the man had said the correct name or not.

"What can you tell me about Jenny Lee?" Mr. Luthor asked before taking a seat in the large conference room chairs.

"Well she is new to the wedding dress design world, but she has received famous admirers from as far away as Japan. She opened her first boutique in 1995 and her success has grown from there"

"And…" Mr. Luthor said as if waiting for some secret knowledge that Clark should have found on the woman they were speaking about.

"Her mother was a designer as well"

"And…"

"Uh" here Clark was stuck, he didn't know what else to say, since that was all the information that he had on the designer.

"Clifton"

"It's Clark, sir"

"Did you look at her previous collections?"

"Yes"

"And…." Here Clark got what the man was asking about; he wanted to know what he thought about them.

"They were much more my style" here Clark blushed; he had said that so totally wrong!

"As in I like them better than those other ones, those just seemed to be trying so hard" Clark said wondering if he was making any sense at all. Maybe he wasn't and Mr. Luthor would send him back to his cube; one could hope couldn't they?

"I agree with you, the Badgley Mischka line always strikes me as the type of dresses for those that want to stand out and prove something" Clark nodded his head at the words that Mr. Luthor spoke, he totally agreed with the jerk on what he was saying. He couldn't see his cousin Kara and Lana wearing dresses made by Jenny Lee, even if they could afford it. No he saw them in one of the hyped up dresses from Badgley Mischka instead, just to be noticed even more than they would be on their wedding day anyway.

"Excellent spotting" Mr. Luthor said an easy grin on his face, that made Clark pull up short. He had never seen the man sitting before him looking so at ease before and the look made Clark stop short because of the beauty behind the quirky smile.

"Jenny Lee will be here within the hour" Mr. Luthor said before standing up and making his way back to his office so that he could welcome his next designer in his office.

"Kent" Kitty said as Clark was passing her desk to go and wait in some corner until he was beckoned for a second time.

"Kitty" Clark greeted the mocha colored woman before getting a glare from her, it made her look very unattractive and considering she was quite beautiful that was a major feat.

"It's Ms. Kowalski to you" the woman said still glaring at Clark, it was as she was about to speak again that Mr. Luthor poked his head out of his office and called for Clark.

"Cael" Mr. Luthor said before sweeping his hand in a gesture which told Clark to follow.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said before looking around the office and seeing that the Badgley Mischka designers and models were gone and the room was now empty except for Clark and Mr. Luthor.

"Yes, yes" Mr. Luthor said before taking a seat and then watching as Clark moved to a chair that now sat in front of his desk. This junior assistant had promise, much more so than the last few he had been given and obviously much more than Kitty his current assistant; who had been asking for some sort of break with working at _Julian_. His father in his infinite wisdom gifted the mocha colored woman to him, since her family had been 'good family' friends with the Luthor patriarch. That of course boiled down to the Kowalski family had done something which Lionel Luthor had liked and now he was repaying the favor in kind by allowing their daughter to be his assistant. It was something he could do without that was for sure, but he had granted the woman a year and she was only two short months away from meeting that contract.

"Sir" Clark said breaking Lex out of his thought process on Kitty and her status as his assistant, something he wanted to remedy as fast and as soon as possible.

"Yes, Craig" Mr. Luthor said putting back on his game face; he would not let this man know that he what he was thinking. No that would have to wait, until he was certain he could get rid of Kitty, the hopeless assistant.

"Mr. Luthor" Kitty said her buzzing voice coming over the intercom system that lay on the 20th floor, only.

"Kitty" Mr. Luthor said; he had gotten quite a diatribe from his father on the importance of using Kitty's first name and having it being correct.

"Ms. Lee is here" Kitty said her voice carrying the distain that she felt for the other woman that was now standing before her.

"Show her in" Mr. Luthor said before standing up which had Clark scrambling to set the chairs back up so that Ms. Jenny Lee could use them how she saw fit. The door was then swung open and a small Asian woman was shown in with a huge smile on her face, as if not afraid of the big, bad Luthor that ran _Julian_.

"Ms. Lee" Mr. Luthor said and he was all style and grace and being the perfect gentleman; it all made Clark want to grind his teeth. How can this man be a huge jerk one moment and a gentleman the next?

"Mr. Luthor it is so nice to meet you" the woman, more like girl at least Clark thought, said smile still on her face making Clark wonder if Mr. Luthor was going to eat her for lunch if he didn't like her collection.

"I have heard many great things about you" Clark heard Mr. Luthor lie, yeah he heard about as much as Clark had told him, although the man had asked about more information on her so maybe he had heard something; but Clark doubted he did the man couldn't be in the same elevator as some people.

"Thank you" Jenny Lee said blushing at the complement that Mr. Luthor gave to her, Clark rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe the woman was falling for Mr. Luthor's crap, but maybe he was the only one that saw what a class A jerk the guy was.

"I have my collection"

"Excellent, Curtis help bring in the collection"

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said before leaving out of the office door and then grabbing the long rack that held Jenny Lee's latest collection of wedding dresses.

"Models" Jenny Lee asked, she could of course afford her own models but she had been told by a few designers that had met with Mr. Luthor that he would supply them for her.

"Crayton, get Kitty to get those models here" Mr. Luthor said before glaring at Clark as if it was his fault that Kitty was slacking her in duties as his assistant.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said before making his way out to Kitty's desk where the woman was on the phone, of course talking to one of her friends as she tended to do all day anyway.

"Ms. Kowalski" Clark said knowing that he didn't have time to play around with Kitty and the whole 'name game' she wanted to play.

"What?"

"Mr. Luthor wants those models"

"Oh well ain't that all…" Kitty said before hanging up on her friend and then dialing some number before glaring at Clark.

"How many" she said a moment later, as if Clark had been told.

"Uh"

"How many?" Kitty said aggravated now that Clark hadn't answered her.

"Ten" Clark guessed hoping that it was enough; either it being too many or not enough he knew that Mr. Luthor would have his guts for garters.

"Ten" Kitty said into the phone before agreeing and then glaring at Clark.

"They'll be here in a few minutes"

"Thank you" Clark said before knocking on the door to Mr. Luthor's office and receiving entry.

"They'll be here in just a moment" Clark said by way of explanation, noticing that the woman was now sitting with her dresses still hanging on the long rack.

"Mr. Luthor" Kitty's voice said over the intercom.

"Yes"

"The models have arrived" Kitty said as if acting like this was something she had planned and was just now coming to fruition, Mr. Luthor was not impressed.

"Show them in" he said in a clipped tone before glaring at Kitty once the models were in the office and making their way over to where Jenny Lee was waving them over and pressing dresses into their hands.

"We will talk later" Mr. Luthor his voice hinting at how unhappy he was, Kitty only nodded her head before backing out.

"Kyle"

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said before going over to stand next to Mr. Luthor.

"I want your thoughts on these dresses as they are shown"

"Yes, sir" Clark agreed before grabbing a chair and then moving it to where Mr. Luthor was sitting.

"Here is my first dress" Jenny Lee said before her first dress was being shown to the pair of them. It was very reminiscent of the 1940s era and Clark was instantly in love with the collection if the rest of it proved to be like this dress.

"Thoughts?" Mr. Luthor said looking at Clark wondering what the dark hair man was thinking.

"Very understated but very 1940s as well, I like it" Clark said slanting a glance at Mr. Luthor to see that he had a pleased smile on his face.

"Indeed" he said with a tip of his head that Jenny Lee took as her cue to send out the next dress to the pair, and so it went for sixteen times. Each dress was in the style of the 1940s and each dress Clark had no problems with, even the one with the ruffles, these ruffles seemed to flow with the dress better than the dress from Badgley Mischka.

"So what do you think?" Jenny Lee asked a bit excited to hear what the famed Lex Luthor of _Julian_ Magazine and LexCorp thought about her latest collection.

"Chuck"

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said shaking his head, even Jenny Lee was stunned at the amount of times that he had corrected Mr. Luthor on his name.

"Your thoughts on the collection"

"Amazing" Clark said figuring that was the only word that could describe the collection that the woman had put together.

"Indeed it is, I can only hope to see this same quality consistently" Mr. Luthor warned the young woman.

"I understand and I also brought some of my timeless collection" the young woman said happy that her line had been received so well.

"Well then what are we waiting for" with that said Jenny Lee sprang into action and began handing out the dresses to the models, watching then as they placed them on and then sending them out to where Mr. Luthor sat with Clark by his side.

"Wow" Clark said as he saw the first dress that Jenny Lee had decided to show them, Mr. Luthor had to chuckled at Clark's exclamation; the dresses were decidedly 'wow' in quality and look. Dress after dress was shown and Clark could see many a brides wearing each of these for years to come, no matter what was in season or fashion this season or next.

"Excellent collection" Mr. Luthor said clearly impressed with Jenny Lee and her creations. Clark nodded his head in agreement, the woman had skill and it showed. She didn't do flashy, figuring that your dress was a part of you and that it need not over shine you on your big day.

"Thank you Mr. Luthor" Jenny Lee gushed quite proud that her two collections had shown so well with Mr. Lex Luthor and _Julian _Magazine. Mr. Luthor tipped his head to the side before barking some orders to Kitty through the intercom.

"Get the photographer in here" Mr. Luthor barked exasperated with Kitty and her lack of anticipating of his wants and needs, how could his new junior assistant get it but not her?

"Right away Mr. Luthor" Kitty said before breaking the connection and ordering up the photographers for Jenny Lee.

"I want photos of all of the dresses you brought today" Mr. Luthor explained before giving a look to Clark and then leaving the room. Clark stood confused on if he should follow the man or not, but since he was pretty certain the look he got meant 'stay' he stayed and waited for the photographer to arrive. Two hours later Clark was stumbling out of Mr. Luthor's office making his way down to the basement to hide out for a bit, he knew sooner or later Mr. Luthor would be looking for him and he could only hope that Kitty would be so into impressing Mr. Luthor that she would distract him enough to forget about him. Then again…..Clark's cell phone rung as he made the ride down to the basement.

"Hello" Clark said knowing that the cell phone worked in the elevator, this was after all a LexCorp building which meant that it had the best of the best and that meant that cell phones worked in the elevators, or at least Clark hoped so.

"Richard"

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said he was truly getting tired of correcting the man, but Clark felt that if he didn't do so that the man may never learn his name. 'Is that a bad thing?' Clark thought before listening to Mr. Luthor rattle on about something that Clark was uncertain on what he was to do or how he was to respond.

"So it is really a matter of the purple tie or the silver one"

"Uh, a tie?" Clark said making sure that he head things correctly.

"Yes, a tie" Mr. Luthor said as if confused by Clark's words.

"The silver" Clark said hoping that he had picked the right color.

"Hmmm" Mr. Luthor said before going on about how the silver would bring out his eyes and then hanging up the phone.

"Clark" Chloe said surprised to see Clark standing on the elevator with a confused look on his face and a cell phone pressed to his ear.

"Mr. Luthor just asked me to pick out a tie for him" Clark explained before walking over to his cube and then sitting down in the chair there. The man had asked him for fashion tips, had the world gone mad?

"A tie?" Chloe asked confused and surprised, it wasn't anything new that you should *never* ask Clark Kent about fashion. It had been a joke in the department even with the little amount of time that Clark had been at _Julian_.

"A tie" Clark confirmed for Chloe before shaking his head and spinning in his chair to log into his computer. Chloe stood there for a moment longer before deciding that she should make her way back to her office so that Clark could get some sort of work done for her. Clark was soon deep into his translations when the cell phone began to ring again.

"Hello" Clark said not really paying much attention to the phone as he picked it up and connected the call.

"Carlin" Clark heard Mr. Luthor say while in the background you could hear that he was obviously not at his desk in the office due to the amount of noise coming through the phone.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark corrected yet again before shaking his head, he really didn't see a point in doing that now.

"Right" Mr. Luthor said before he continued on with the reason for his call.

"I want a list of…." Here Mr. Luthor was cut off by someone asking the man something and receiving an answer to their question. Clark waited patiently for the man to realize that he was still on the phone.

"Now back to what I was saying, I want a list of all the places that are going to be 'the place to get married' when I get back to the office" Mr. Luthor said before hanging up the phone without so much as a goodbye. Clark hung onto the phone for a moment longer before closing the cell phone and throwing it on the desk. He had yet another off-the-wall project that would take more time than he was being given to get done.

"Can a brotha get a break?" Clark mumbled to himself before he brought up a browser to look at hopefully some sort of list that would help him in his quest to find 'the place to get married' across the US. It was not to be since each state spoke of the beauty and amazing possibilities that they had for wedding ceremonies that would be held there each and every year.

"Best start with Metropolis" Clark said before bringing up the city's website and looking at all of the possibilities that were held in the city for wedding locations.

"The rose garden of course" Clark said putting the name on the list that he had begun to compile, he figured he would pick places that he would want to get married in and hope that at least some of them would make Mr. Luthor's list for the 'hottest place to get married' for _Julian_ Magazine.

"What does Gotham have to offer?" Clark asked the computer before bringing up their website as well and noticing a couple of places, such as Cape Carmine or Grant Park; which had been said to have one of the most amazing green space, sort of like Central Park closer to home. Clark added another couple of places from various towns around the US, before he realized that Mr. Luthor might want locations that weren't as accessible to the general public that most of his choices were.

"Singapore would be amazing" Clark said a faraway look on his face as he thought of the foreign country and what he would offer to those looking for an exotic experience.

"Spain, Italy" Clark said while writing each of the locations down, thinking of sun drenched country lands with scores of people dressed in formal wear waiting for the bride to make her way down the aisle, it was something that Clark could see. Nothing like that for him, no he would be quite happy with staying in the US and close to his family; but if he was given the chance he would have to pick Singapore. The exotic land had always appealed to him, with the exotic natives, the amazing views and the ancient language. Clark soon had a list of over fifty locations and he decided that the best way to present this to Mr. Luthor would be US and Foreign countries, that way there would be no confusion on where a location may be.

"Clark" Chloe said surprising Clark who was busy writing his lists up so that when Mr. Luthor came a calling he would be ready for him.

"Chloe, you scared me" Clark said grabbing his papers before they fell and he would be sitting there sorting through them to figure out what went where.

"Sorry about that" Chloe said blushing, she hadn't meant to creep up on Clark like that but she figured she could at least warn him that Mr. Luthor was back in the building and probably looking for him.

"It's okay, just make more noise or something next time" Clark joked with Chloe before he noticed that she was looking at him in a sympathetic way.

"He's back"

"Yeah, I was making my way down here when I saw him strolling in"

"Great" Clark mumbled before standing up and then making his way over to the bank of elevators that would take him back up to the 20th floor. Clark arrived to the 20th floor to see that Kitty looked entirely way to smug about something.

"Bye, bye" Kitty taunted before waving her hand at him like a little kid would, Clark just glared, the woman was much too full of herself and he could only hope that she would get knocked down a peg or two soon. A Kowalski she may be, but that still didn't mean that she could treat Clark like he was second best, then again maybe that was exactly what he was; second best.

"Mr. Luthor, your junior assistant has arrived" Kitty said as if giving his name would end her life.

"Send him in" Mr. Luthor said in a clipped tone of voice, oh the man was not happy about something but at this point in time Clark couldn't care.

"Mr. Luthor" Clark greeted the bald man sitting at the glass desk with the Metropolis skyline hanging behind him, a reminder of the greatness that he had achieved.

"Clayton"

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said taking a seat as Mr. Luthor gestured to the empty chairs now sitting back in their rightful place in front of the desk.

"Kitty spoke to me about…" here Mr. Luthor looked at Clark had began to wonder on if what Kitty had told him was true. She seemed to always make a face when he asked or spoke about the man sitting before him, and the more he thought about it the more he began to realize that Kitty wasn't the best judge of character.

"I was in the basement the whole time you were gone" Clark said figuring that Kitty had said something about him saying something less than pleasant about Mr. Luthor to one of the many workers on one of the many floors.

"The whole time" Mr. Luthor asked shocked, he had figured that his junior assistant wouldn't return back to the translation department once he was promoted, but that didn't seem to be the case.

"Yes, Chloe saw me" Clark said before fidgeting with the papers in his hands.

"Hmmm" Mr. Luthor said thinking that Kitty was becoming more trouble than she was worth, then again the woman wasn't worth much to begin with.

"Here are my lists of 'the best places to get married'" Clark said before handing over the two pieces of papers explaining that one was US destinations and the other were overseas destinations.

"Singapore?" Mr. Luthor asked Clark, he was quite surprised to see some of the locations that Clark picked out on the lists.

"Amazing views and from what I understand, very friendly atmosphere" Clark explained before the buzz of the intercom came on.

"Mr. Luthor" Kitty said almost sounding concerned about something.

"Kitty" Mr. Luthor said wondering if there was a reason as for the woman interrupting his meeting with his junior assistant.

"Is everything alright?"

"Fine" Mr. Luthor said before clicking off the intercom and then glaring at said piece of equipment. Clark wanted to laugh; it seemed that Kitty had gotten herself in even more trouble.

"Now as I was saying" Mr. Luthor said before glaring at his door as if willing Kitty to come through the door with some stupid reason for another interruption with the meeting he was having currently.

"I wasn't sure on if you wanted it limited to the US only, so I picked some places aboard that I assume would be amazing places to hold a wedding" Clark said willing himself to be still in the chair he was sitting in.

"Excellent, excellent" Mr. Luthor said after thinking over Clark's words, _Julian_ of course had lists of 'the hottest places to get married' in their wedding edition every year, but every year it was the same five locations. It seemed that his junior assistant was here to change some things up, he of course saw the usual spots on the list but they seemed to be towards the bottom.

"Is this list in any sort of order?" Mr. Luthor questioned Clark; he had to know if the top five locations on each list were the top five locations or if they just were placed there on the list.

"I've listed them by what I thought would be the most exotic to the least exotic" Clark said thinking that he might have ordered his lists wrong.

"Hence Singapore as number one on the aboard list" Mr. Luthor reasoned before he was off and thinking of photo shoots and all sorts of things that came with putting together the article for the 'Top Five Locations to get Married' for _Julian_ Magazine; Mr. Luthor decided then that maybe making it top five for the US and the top for aboard locations would be better.

"Mr. Luthor" Clark said after a moment when it looked like Mr. Luthor was deep into his plans for whatever it was that he was thinking.

"Carlos" Mr. Luthor said before shooing Clark out of his office with the words of yet another meeting he was to be at the next morning. Kitty sneered at Clark as he made his way out of Mr. Luthor's office, when it looked like Clark hadn't been fired she stomped her way into Mr. Luthor's office. Clark heard Mr. Luthor reaming Kitty out as the elevator doors closed to take him back down to his cube in the basement.

"Clark" Chloe said surprised to see Clark making his way back downstairs to her neck of the woods.

"Can I?" Clark said before looking over to his cube with longing, he so just wanted to spend the rest of the day in the basement, in his cube; avoiding the bald headed man that was calling himself Clark's boss.

"Sure" Chloe said before shaking her head, Mr. Luthor was going to burn Clark out and then he would be left with the incapable Kitty yet again and he would be stomping around the building like he had been before Clark started and took up the task of being his junior assistant. Clark quickly made his way over to his cube and then signed back into his computer; he wanted to do something that didn't require him to make decisions for the fashion world for the next couple of hours, before he went home. It was then that he remembered that he had promised his mother that he would look into the Metropolis Farmers Market and what it took to get a booth or stall there.

"The Farmer's Market?" Chloe asked walking up on Clark while he surfed around the internet trying to figure out how to reserve a booth; so far he had hit a dead-end with the website that was run by the city for the place, so now he was on some organization's website that helped out with the Farmers Market.

"My parents want to try their hand here"

"They're famers?" Chloe asked surprised, she didn't figure Clark as a farmer type of guy. Okay she did, but she didn't think that he was really a famer, just some geek that went to some private school in high school and was in the 4H club at school.

"Kent Organic Farms" Clark said before coughing at the look on Chloe's face.

"My dad raves about that place; he swears it's the best produce in Kansas"

"Well…" Clark said embarrassed, he had always been sort of wrangled about being a farm hand while in high school so he tried to keep his life before moving to Metropolis a bit of a mystery. Even Laurent didn't know much about Clark's past, and the man had been his lover for years.

"The strawberries" Chloe said remembering when her father came for a visit and had brought some strawberries to butter her up into going on a blind date with one of his worker's son.

"One of my mother's pride and joy" Clark said flashing back to when he was still at home or went back for visits and his mother plying him with strawberries to help with the work in the large garden she kept for flower arrangements that someone people sometime ordered.

"I so have to meet them" Chloe said excited to meeting Clark's parents and to also meet the famers that grew the best strawberries in the world, at least in her opinion.

"I'm hoping to get something set up in the next couple of weeks"

"Let me see what I can do" Chloe said ready to see the rest of the Kent family this weekend or next if she could swing it.

"Uh, okay" Clark said before he watched as Chloe made her way to her office to do who knew what. With not much else to do, Clark began working on the translations that seemed to have piled up on his desk. Clark had just begun on his second article translation when his phone rang, his LAN line phone and Chloe walked up to his desk.

"Go ahead" Chloe said before watching Clark answer the phone and then watching as his face turned into something quite unhappy.

"Fine" Clark said before hanging up the phone and then grumbling about something.

"Okay there?" Chloe asked wondering who it was that called, she knew of only a few people that would actually call Clark on the LAN line.

"Kitty has decided that I am Mr. Luthor's whipping boy. I need to have his coffee on his desk before he arrives tomorrow morning" Clark quoted back to Chloe before rolling his eyes. He was so much better than that, but it seemed that Kitty or Mr. Luthor didn't care a lick about that.

"I'm sorry" Chloe said before she began bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"So how did the booth/stall search go?"

"Excellent!" Chloe said before smiling wide at Clark, oh he was going to love her for this one.

"So?"

"This weekend and I managed to get them a spot in Shed One" Chloe said, she had fought with the people about getting the Kents a spot in the first shed, but it seemed that once she explained that she wouldn't be taking no for an answer they understood the best thing to do was do what she said and be done with her.

"What?" Clark said surprised, he had figured that he might be able to get a spot for his parents in the next couple of weeks, a month at the max but it seemed that Chloe had managed much more.

"Shed One, their spot in number…" here Chloe looked down to the details she had gathered from the person she had been working with.

"One oh eight" Chloe said before explaining at what time the spot would be available and for how long they had the slot.

"Thanks Chloe" Clark said before smiling at Chloe, making her heart rate increase just a little bit. She could dream, couldn't she?

"No problem, but I expect a nice large basket of strawberries on my desk come Monday morning" Chloe said before laughing and getting a nod in response from Clark. By this time it was time for Clark to leave, so he signed out of his computer and then made his way to the bank of elevators to ride up to the main floor before making his way home.

"Charlie" Mr. Luthor greeted Clark as he stepped off another elevator that had come down from the 20th floor.

"It's Clark, sir" Clark said as he made his way off the elevator that had risen from the basement. Mr. Luthor noticed that the elevator was empty and had come up instead of down.

"Is there a reason for you coming from the basement?"

"That's where my desk is, Mr. Luthor" Clark said before he saw an unhappy look pass over Mr. Luthor's face.

"The basement is for the Translation Department"

"Of which I am a part of" Clark said noticing now that there were groups of people stopping and watching the conversation that the pair of them were having.

"You are my junior assistant, first and foremost"

"I understand that sir" Clark said not wanting to get into a fight with the man so out in the open. It was bad enough that he couldn't stand the man but to actually have a fight where others could see was pushing it in Clark's book.

"Then your reason for being in the basement?" Mr. Luthor asked his cool tone telling Clark that he was not happy at all with what Clark was saying.

"I was translating the to-be-released edition of _Julian_ into Arabic" Clark said hoping that would put the man off; it seemed that it had the opposite effect.

"You are *my* junior assistant"

"And I was the Arabic translator before that" Clark said now through clenched teeth, he was about ready to scream at the man.

"Clark" Chloe said popping off another empting elevator and making her way over to where Clark and Mr. Luthor seemed to be deep in conversation.

"Chloe" Clark said before sliding a glance to the perky blonde in a business suit, which made him miss the look that Mr. Luthor shot to Chloe for such familiarity with *his* junior assistant.

"Ms. Sullivan"

"Mr. Luthor" Chloe said formally before she started to act as if Mr. Luthor wasn't there.

"I am hoping that you can get me the rough cut of that article by tomorrow afternoon"

"I'll try" Clark said peeking over to Mr. Luthor and seeing that the man looked a bit stunned.

"Ms. Sullivan" Mr. Luthor said wiping the stunned look off his face to ask about what Chloe was talking about to *his* junior assistant.

"Mr. Luthor" Chloe answered back she knew what the man was going to ask and she was going to make sure that it was explained that if she lost Clark, _Julian_ Magazine lost all of the Arabic reading nations as clients.

"Is there a reason why you are speaking to my junior assistant…." Here Mr. Luthor was cut off by Chloe, she really didn't have to hear the rest of his question, she already knew it what he was going to ask.

"Clark" here Chloe put an emphasis on his name while looking at Mr. Luthor before continuing on.

"Was and is the only Arabic translator that _Julian_ currently has. I hate to say this but most of the people that applied for the job were looking for an in to _Julian_ Magazine and not to actually do any translating" Chloe said finishing her explanations and she could see that her words were received loud and clear, for Mr. Luthor did not look happy at all.

"Unacceptable" Mr. Luthor said before marching off and out the building while grabbing his cell phone to call someone.

"Uh, did I miss something" Clark said watching the back of Mr. Luthor as it left the building with a cell phone to his ear.

"Not any more than usual" Chloe said knowing that whatever it was that Mr. Luthor was doing it was not something Clark needed or should know about. Clark shrugged his shoulders, if Chloe said he need not worry then he planned to do that. There was no sense in worrying over nothing that was for sure.

"Have a good night and see you tomorrow" Clark said before waving to Chloe and then making his way out of the building and to his waiting car. He never noticed that most of the people that had been in the building watching the pair of them still stood there amazed that Clark had lived to see another day when dealing with Mr. Luthor. Chloe shook her head, her thoughts circling around why Mr. Luthor seemed to be keeping Clark around. She knew he was good at getting a job done, but no one had been able to talk to Mr. Luthor the way that Clark did and she had to wonder if maybe, just maybe Mr. Luthor liked what he was seeing with Clark. It was no mystery that Mr. Luthor swung both ways with an emphasis on the male form, and Clark was one fine male form if she ever saw one. He was all tan skin and muscled body with a heart of gold, it still amazed her that someone so *wholesome* was gay. You just didn't see that in Middle America, where farming was in the blood and not something so metropolis and not the city where they lived. Chloe shook her head and headed out of the building as well, she had a father to interrogate and she planned to get as many answers as possible about the Kent family and what Clark was like in high school. Chloe snorted at the thought that Clark had probably mooned over the town's princess while being so far in the closet that he was backed up to the cedar walls. With that thought in mind Chloe made her way out of the building and to her car, all the while thoughts of Clark's life before his moving to Metropolis running through her head.

Clark arrived home to see that there was a message on the answering machine, well actually there were three and Clark just *knew* that one of them was Laurent, who was still MIA on the fashion shoot he was doing in some small country in Europe. Clark threw his keys on the table that was sitting next to the door and then pressed play to the answering machine that sat on the same table.

"Clark" Clark heard in Laurent's voice, he had been hoping that Laurent would soon tire of not speaking to him and quit calling but it seemed that Laurent seemed even more determined due to Clark not answering the phone. Clark didn't really listen to the message since he knew it would be the same as it had been for the last few weeks, something about him missing Clark like crazy and saying that when he got back that they would just have to have dinner together.

"Whatever" Clark said deleting the message in the middle of Laurent's spiel, the next voice was that of his mother.

" Clark's it's your mother" Martha said making Clark laugh, as if he couldn't figure out that it was his mother on the machine.

"I had been hoping to catch you but you probably haven't even made it in…" Martha rambled before stopping herself and getting to the reason that she was calling.

"Your father is in a right state about the possibility of showing off his produce" here Martha laughed, Jonathan Kent was horrible when it came to his family and his farm. It was like a spitting match with guys, who could spit the furthest only this dealt with produce. Martha still didn't get it but she let her husband have his fun with walking around town stating that his produce was the best in the city and probably the county. No one had ever stated otherwise, for most of them bought produce from them and they were farmers themselves.

"Give us a call if you found out anything" Martha said before saying that she loved Clark and to get plenty of rest.

"As if that is possible now" Clark said before sighing when he heard the third message on his machine.

"Kent, Mr. Luthor wants his coffee first thing in the morning, so you better not think of being late and if that means you have to leave early then plan to" Kitty's voice came through the phone. Clark wasn't really sure on why the woman didn't just call the stupid cell phone that sat in his pocket but he had a feeling that Kitty had been nosing around in the HR department to see just how qualified he was to be Mr. Luthor's junior assistant and just happened to find his home phone number, it was a scare tactic he was certain of.

"If you screw this up" Kitty said before then hanging up the phone, Clark stood confused by Kitty's attitude.

"Well if you would *tell* me what it is that Mr. Luthor drinks that would be nice" Clark snarked to the machine knowing that he would never say something like that to Kitty, she was after all quite scary when she wanted to be. Clark soon deleted the other messages and made his way to the kitchen for something to eat, he could really go for some of this mother's cooking but he knew he had to at least wait until that weekend when his parents would arrive from the farm to sell their produce at the Farmer's Market downtown.


End file.
